No, but it's often the case that if a Canadian firm that is trying to compete globally does not make that investment, they may not be protecting any jobs at home. They may be out of business. Because this is not a closed system. They're competing head-on every day with firms from around the world that are doing exactly the same thing. And part of the reason you get the multiplier effect is that by becoming more efficient and taking advantage of that integrative trade model, they can probably maintain certain kinds of jobs at home, and in fact even improve the quality.
What we're seeing is that if you take apart global distribution, the kinds of jobs we want to capture in Canada are jobs that are high value, research and development, conceptualization of product, the marketing, the financial services. And frankly, I think this train has already left the station. The United States has lost 20% of its manufacturing employment in the last ten years. Almost all of it has gone to Asia, to China, to Vietnam, some to India. Yet American unemployment has actually gone down over that period.
There is a fundamental issue on the nature of employment and how we're sharing the gains from globalization. That's a very important issue, and that's something we'll have to think hard about in our social policy design. But it's not as if you can stand against the tide of globalization. Because if you resist, you may simply be gone. It may be not a matter of protecting a certain number of jobs within Canada. Those jobs may simply be gone because the firm will close. It will be gone, and you'll lose 100% of the jobs, rather than trying to find a way to improve the quality of the two-thirds of employment that you can maintain in Canada. Then with the multiplier effect, deeper engagement of trade, we do see it as a net positive.
Obviously this is a grand concept. This is not hard reality for a firm in a particular town. That can be very tough. You're absolutely right to have concerns about the consumption effect and the employment effect for a particular employer in a particular jurisdiction.