Deindustrialization generally refers to the slow and steady decline of manufacturing employment, which has occurred in nearly all highly developed societies over recent decades. Attempts to explain deindustrialization vary significantly between the disciplines of economics and sociology. In economics, deindustrialization is viewed as a normal stage of economic development brought about by strong productivity growth in manufacturing (which reduces the demand for workers) and rising consumer affluence (which disproportionately increases the demand for services). Conversely, sociological accounts of deindustrialization emphasize globalization and the offshoring of routine-production jobs to less developed countries. Sociologists also implicate deindustrialization in a host of vexing social problems, such as rising earnings inequality, persistently high unemployment, and severe community decline. Recent comparative research documents “premature deindustrialization,” a phenomenon in which less developed countries deindustrialize well before they become fully modernized.