Massachusetts is among the state’s hardest hit by the United States trade deficit with China, which has grown by $100 billion since the Great Recession and has stripped nearly 100,000 jobs from the state, according to a new study. The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank that Northeastern University economist Barry Bluestone helped co-found, reported in its study released Tuesday that every state and Congressional district has lost manufacturing jobs due to the trade deficit. However, few have been hit as hard as the Bay State, and in particular the Third Congressional District. Massachusetts lost 99,100 jobs from 2001 to 2017, or 2.75 percent of its total workforce making it the seventh hardest hit state in the country from competition with China. (whole story)
State House News Service
October 24, 2018
If the Trump administration wants to get tough on trade with China and other countries, it must take stronger action to address currency manipulation and misalignment and not just impose tariffs on Chinese goods, according to the author of a new study on the effects of trade with Beijing on U.S. manufacturing employment. “I don’t think the tariffs alone are going to solve our trade problems with China,” Robert Scott, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute. (paywall, appears to be whole story)
Inside U.S. Trade
October 24, 2018
New Hampshire has 24,000 fewer jobs because of the massive trade deficit with China – 3.55 percent of the state workforce in 2017, a larger percentage than any other state in the nation, according to report released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. The report blames a $375 billion deficit with China for the loss of 3.4 million jobs in the U.S. manufacturing and high-tech sectors since 2001, when China joined the World Trade Organization. The total includes actual job loss and “job opportunity” loss. (whole story)
New Hampshire Business Review
October 24, 2018
America’s trade deficit with China cost the United States 3.4 million jobs between 2001 and 2017, with the losses hitting all 50 states and every congressional district, according to a new study released by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The report notes that the trade deficit has grown by an average of almost 10 percent a year since China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, ballooning to $375.2 billion last year. (whole story)
Lifezette
October 24, 2018
“At the end of the day, it really to me points to the hazards of a single case study,” Ben Zipperer, an expert on the minimum wage at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI), told the Times after writing a blog post critical of the University of Washington analyses. (In defense of the work, Jacob Vigdor, a UW economist, argued the two studies were not wholly incompatible and stressed the complexity of the issues: “What we can’t tell from our data is whether a lot of people are trying to find work and not finding anyone willing to hire them, or whether there just aren’t as many people making the effort,” he told the paper.)
Vice News
October 24, 2018
A critique published Monday by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute says problems with the first study haven’t been fixed, and thus the new study overstates the reduction in new entrants to Seattle’s labor market. Since it defines “new entrant” as someone making less than $15 an hour, the study would count someone who got hired at $16 or $17 an hour as a lost job instead of a better one.
CNN
October 24, 2018
California has lost more jobs to China than any other state since 2001, fueled by Silicon Valley outsourcing and the continued shrinking of Southern California’s apparel industry, according to a report released Tuesday by a Washington, D.C., think tank. Some 562,000 jobs were displaced in the Golden State, the equivalent of a 3.34% share of California’s total employment of 16.8 million jobs in 2017, the Economic Policy Institute concluded. (whole story)
Los Angeles Times
October 24, 2018
President Trump’s trade war with China won’t bring back the jobs lost from the trade deficit with China, according to Robert Scott, a senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, whose work Trump cited on the campaign trail and during his presidency. (whole story, chart included)
Axios
October 24, 2018
TRADE TROUBLES: The trade deficit that has “ballooned” since China joined the World Trade Organization has cost 3.4 million US jobs from 2001 to 2017, hitting the manufacturing sector the hardest, according to a new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “Between 2001 and 2011 alone , growing trade deficits with China reduced the incomes of directly impacted workers by $37 billion per year, and in 2011 alone, growing competition with imports from China and other low wage-countries reduced the wages of all U.S. non-college graduates by a total of $180 billion,” according to the report. Economists Robert E. Scott and Zane Mokhiber say that because imports from China have soared, while exports to China have increased at a slower pace, the US is losing jobs and missing opportunities to add them in manufacturing. “Some regions are devastated by layoffs and factory closings while others are surviving but not growing the way they could be if new factories were opening and existing plants were hiring more workers,” they write. “This slowdown in manufacturing job generation is also contributing to stagnating wages of typical workers and widening inequality.” Read the report here.
Politico Pro
October 24, 2018
Meanwhile, the left-leaning Economics Policy Institute in Washington is issuing a report Tuesday that paints a dim picture of the impact of the U.S. trade deficit with China on American jobs, particularly in New York. The trade deficit, now more than $260 billion, cost the U.S. 3.4 million jobs between 2001 when China entered the World Trade Organization, and 2017. Three quarters of the job losses were in manufacturing, the report concluded. (Rob and EPI cited throughout)
Times Union
October 24, 2018