U.S. Job Loss to China Trade Shown by State and Industry

Alliance for American Manufacturing - The United States is hemorrhaging millions of jobs as a result of the nation’s growing trade deficit, largely with China, according to a report issued today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). ...The EPI report is the first to break down job losses to the congressional district level. Using the EPI data, AAM created an interactive map showing the impact by CDs.

The congressional districts suffering the worst job losses were concentrated in states heavily exposed to growing China trade deficits in computer and electronic products and such other industries as furniture, textiles and apparel...Rapidly growing imports of computers and electronic parts accounted for more than 40 percent of the $186 billion increase in the trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2008.

The impact of the China trade deficit is not restricted to the jobs displaced, the report found. Competition with low-wage workers from less-developed countries also has driven down wages for other workers in manufacturing and reduced the wages and bargaining power of similar workers throughout the economy—essentially all production workers with less than a four-year college degree, roughly 80 percent of the private-sector workforce.