After rising by nearly 4 million during the 1960s, manufacturing employment oscillated between 18.5 and 21.0 million workers during the 1970s and 1980s. Large declines in manufacturing employment were seen in 1968–70, 1973–74, and 1979–82. In the first two periods, the declines were almost entirely cyclical, coinciding with recessions and largely unrelated to trade. But in 1981–82, when manufacturing employment fell 12 percent, a loss of nearly 3 million jobs, about a third of the employment decline was due to trade—the fall in manufactured exports and rise in imports—and the other two-thirds
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