Labor, once chiefly a domestic issue, is now also a matter of US foreign policy. US voters perceive two threats to the job market: immigration and outsourcing. US workers worry that foreign workers are usurping their jobs both at home and overseas, and feel anxious about their ability to keep pace with emerging economic giants like India and China. There are signs of trouble for US workers: The manufacturing sector has fallen below 10 percent of GDP in the United States, technological advances that increase productivity have not increased the quality and availability of jobs in the service sector, real wages for US workers have declined since 1999, and organized labor has lost much of its old political clout. Democratic candidates have responded with renewed appeals to populism, even as growing numbers of voters recognize that old-fashioned protectionism is no longer feasible or desirable in a globalizing world. Trouble for the US economy suggests trouble for the global economy, too. A slowdown in the US threatens to reduce consumption of foreign goods, which in turn imperils many countries that depend on exports to the US - which, at 21 percent of global GDP, remains the world's leading consumer nation.

Best US Factory Jobs in Rising Jeopardy Mark Trumbull The Christian Science Monitor, 20 February 2008 Higher productivity around the globe means that workers cannot relax anywhere

Clinton and Obama Emphasize Economic Themes John M. Broder and Jeff Zeleny The New York Times, 18 February 2008 Confronted by an anxious workforce, Democratic candidates strike populist themes

Unpopular Globalization: Why So Many Are Opposed David Dapice YaleGlobal, 2 February 2006 Blaming globalization for workforce anxiety in the US and Europe is misguided