The same flexible American labor market that wooed foreign firms to create jobs for American workers is now the target of job cuts. For the past decade, economists, politicians and business executives have praised the flexibility of American labor laws for facilitating job creation in the economic boom, but the current global economic slowdown calls for job cuts, and the strict labor laws in Europe and Japan that protect workers’ jobs are forcing companies to turn to the American labor force for cuts. Determining the full effect on the United States, however, is difficult because many companies are reluctant to release geographic breakdowns of their layoffs.
See "Foreign Firms’ Layoffs Hit Home for U.S. Workers", Steven Pearlstein, The Washington Post, August 5, 2001