This paper critically examines the various reasons put forward for the declining fortunes (in terms of wages or employment) of the unskilled labour segment of the labourforce in developed countries (North), One argument, which has gained considerable credibility amongst policy makers, is that trade with the South will pauperise the less fortunate members of the Northern work force, I argue that it is not trade with the South, per se, which hurts unskilled labour in the North, but mainly the process of technical change, the nature of labour market imperfections and the spatially mobile nature of production.
