Economic Snapshot | Trade and Globalization

Displaced Minority Workers Suffered 29.6 Percent Drop in Wages from the Growing Trade Deficit with China

Growing China trade deficits displaced nearly a million good jobs with excellent benefits for minority workers between 2001 and 2011. Minority workers suffered a disproportionately large 35 percent of total jobs displaced by growing trade deficits. As this report explains, this also means huge wage losses for the displaced workers. The average wage of minority workers in the trade industry was $45,799 per year in 2011. When re-employed in other industries, the average wage of minority workers dropped 29.6 percent to $35,341 per year, a loss of $10,458. For the 958,800 minority workers displaced by growing trade deficits, net wage losses totaled $10.1 billion per year.  The displacement of manufacturing and trade-related jobs has been extremely costly for the economy, hitting America’s working families especially hard, and hitting minority families the hardest.


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