I was one of the “victims” of the “peace dividend”.
I was in aerospace - working on metrology systems for many of the aerospace manufacturers of the time.
I had to change careers in 1991. No real hardship in my case, I did great. Others didn’t.
The 1990s is when the big reductions in manufacturing capacity happened. This is a very old situation.
big reductions in manufacturing = offshoring by traitors.