Chart: U.S.–China goods trade and job displacement, 2001–2015

Table 1

U.S.–China goods trade and job displacement, 2001–2015

				Change ($billions)		Percent change
	2001	2008	2015	2001–2015	2008–2015	2001–2015
U.S. goods trade with China ($ billions, nominal)
U.S. total exports*	$19.2	$71.5	$116.1	$96.8	$44.6	503.4%
U.S. general imports	$102.3	$337.8	$483.2	$381.0	$145.5	372.5%
U.S. trade balance	‑$83.0	‑$266.3	‑$367.2	‑$284.1	‑$100.8	342.1%
Average annual change in the trade balance				‑$20.2	‑$14.4	11.2%
				Change (thousands of jobs)		Percent change
U.S. trade-related jobs supported and displaced (thousands of jobs)
U.S. total exports–jobs supported	171.9	544.2	826.6	654.7	282.4	380.8%
U.S. general imports–jobs displaced	1,129.6	3,621.2	5,227.6	4,098.0	1,606.4	362.8%
U.S. trade deficit–net jobs displaced	957.7	3,077.0	4,401.0	3,443.3	1,324.0	359.6%
Average annual change in net jobs displaced				246.0	189.1	11.5%

* Total exports as reported by the U.S. International Trade Commission include re-exports. Domestic exports are goods produced in the United States and exclude goods produced in other countries and shipped through the United States (known as foreign exports or re-exports). Domestic exports were estimated to be $107.7 billion in 2015. The employment estimates shown here are based on total exports. See footnote 3 for additional details.

Source: Author's analysis of U.S. Census Bureau (2013), U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC 2016a), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS 2016e), and BLS Employment Projections program (BLS-EP 2014a and 2014b). For a more detailed explanation of data sources and computations, see the appendix.

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