In adjusting to the labor shortage, some farms are switching from tobacco, which requires many workers during harvest, to less labor-intensive products, such as Christmas trees.

Such labor-intensive products do not come cheap.

Samples of her labor-intensive products are on display here, in a vitrine, along with some photographs of the artist at work.

Where would that leave Bangladesh, which is able to survive despite its desperate lack of resources only because it can export clothing and other labor-intensive products?

High wages make it difficult for Puerto Rico to compete with the rest of the Caribbean in both tourism and labor-intensive products.

First, suits are the most labor-intensive product in the apparel industry.

Its strategy has been to avoid competing head-to-head with other countries in labor-intensive products like textiles.

Customized shirts are both the most popular and the most labor-intensive product on the site, Mr. Beaver said.

"The traditional forces of comparative advantage," he said, "would have pushed China to specialize only in the labor-intensive products 'appropriate' to low-income economies."

But some labor-intensive products like medical supplies were being made in Mexico and shipped back to the United States for sterilization and distribution.