Report: U.S.-China trade displaced 100,000 Ohio workers
Little more than half a decade since China entered the World Trade Organization, a resulting trade deficit has triggered the loss of more than 100,000 jobs in Ohio, says a report from the Economy Policy Institute released Wednesday.
A study by the Washington, D.C.-based group pegs the nation’s net job loss to China between 2001 and 2007 at about 3 million jobs, 102,700 of which were in Ohio. About 17,000 of the Ohio jobs were lost between 2006 and 2007.
The report found Ohio absorbed the fifth-highest net job loss. The share of workers displaced in the state accounted for less than 2 percent of Ohio’s 2001 work force. By comparison, Idaho lost a net 14,700 jobs since 2001, and the total accounted for more than 2.5 percent of its 2001 work force – the highest percentage among the states.
Driving a “crisis in manufacturing employment” in the nation, the report states, are the effects of monetary exchange rates and an imbalance in U.S. exports and its Chinese imports. Exports to China are commodity-intensive, while Chinese imports are almost exclusively manufactured products.
The report pegged the U.S. trade deficit with China last year at $262 billion, up from $84 billion in 2001. That’s an average annual increase of more than 20 percent.
The report acknowledge the nation’s trading relationship with China resulted in workers being re-employed in other industries, but it found displaced workers lost an average of $8,146 in pay yearly since 2001. About three of every four displaced American workers moved into jobs that paid hourly wages of $17.80 or less, or at most $35,600 a year.
The report also found about 90 percent of the U.S. net job loss was spread evenly among workers with a high school education, some college training and a college degree.
The report calls for a “fundamental change” in the U.S.-China trade relationship, particularly with exchange rate policies and labor standards in the Asian nation’s economy.
For details, click here to download the full report.
The nonprofit institute bills itself as a non-partisan think tank advocating a fair economy.