some of the affected workers were able to move to the higherend of the job distribution but many had to take up jobs in the lowerwage service sector potentially displacing lowerskilled workers this shock was especially strong in the western states which lost about of construction jobs between and while there have always been profound changes in labour demand eg when agriculture contracted and manufacturing expanded the fact that these recent changes have been associated with a decline in labour force participation may reflect the difficulty for workers losing their job to adapt to changing demand and remain in the labour force