Thomas Borchert wrote:
Mxsmanic,
The phenomenon is worldwide

That begs the question "Whereto are the jobs leaving?"

If it's software related, the work is sometimes outsourced to India, China,
and eastern Europe (lower cost) and away from North America and western
Europe (higher cost). The issue was noticed most by software developers
when the dot-com bubble burst. Classic free market situation, really. But
the situation isn't as bad today as it was for software developers a couple
years ago, though.