the sizable decline in u.s. manufacturing jobs since 2000 has been blamed on various causes, such as trade with a rising asia, offshoring of jobs with few restrictions to lower wage countries, innovation in global supply chains (e.g., containerization), and other technology improvements. the millions of construction jobs created during the housing bubble that peaked in 2006 helped mask some of this adverse employment impact initially. further, households dramatically increased their debt burden from 2001-2007, extracting home equity for use in consumption. however, the housing bubble collapse in 2006-2008 contributed to the subprime mortgage crisis and resulting great recession, which resulted in households switching from adding debt to paying it down, a headwind to the economy for several years thereafter.