Since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001, the massive growth of trade between China and the United States has had a dramatic and negative effect on U.S. workers and the domestic economy. Specifically, a growing U.S. goods trade deficit with China has the United States piling up foreign debt, losing export capacity, and losing jobs, especially in the vital but under-siege manufacturing sector. Growth in the U.S. goods trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013 eliminated or displaced 3.2 million U.S. jobs, 2.4 million (three-fourths) of which were in manufacturing. These lost manufacturing jobs account for about two-thirds of all U.S. manufacturing jobs lost or displaced between December, 2001 and December 2013.
Among specific industries, the trade deficit in the computer and electronic parts industry grew the most, and 1,249,100 jobs were lost or displaced, 39.6 percent of the 2001–2013 total. As a result, many of the hardest-hit congressional districts were in California, Texas, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, where jobs in that industry are concentrated. Some districts in New York, Georgia, and Illinois were also especially hard-hit by trade-related job displacement in a variety of manufacturing industries, including computer and electronic parts, textiles and apparel, and furniture.
The growing trade deficit with China has cost jobs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Using a new model and new congressional district data to estimate the job impacts of trade for the 113th Congress, this study also finds that job losses occurred in every congressional district but one.1
This summary of the jobs impact of trade with China arise from the following specific findings of this study:
Most of the jobs lost or displaced by trade with China between 2001 and 2013 were in manufacturing industries (2.4 million jobs, or 75.7 percent).
Within manufacturing, rapidly growing imports of computer and electronic parts (including computers, parts, semiconductors, and audio and video equipment) accounted for 56.0 percent of the $240.1 billion increase in the U.S. goods trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013. The growth of this deficit eliminated 1,249,100 U.S. jobs in computer and electronic parts in this period. Indeed, in 2013, the total U.S. trade deficit with China was $324.2 billion—$154.4 billion of which was in computer and electronic parts.
Global trade in advanced technology products—often discussed as a source of comparative advantage for the United States—is instead dominated by China. This broad category of high-end technology products includes the more advanced elements of the computer and electronic parts industry as well as other sectors such as biotechnology, life sciences, aerospace, and nuclear technology. In 2013, the United States had a $116.9 billion deficit in advanced technology products with China, and this deficit was responsible for 36.0 percent of the total U.S.-China goods trade deficit. In contrast, the United States had a $35.6 billion surplus in advanced technology products with the rest of the world in 2013.
Other industrial sectors hit hard by the growing trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013 include apparel (203,900 jobs); textile mills and textile product mills (106,800); fabricated metal products (141,200); electrical equipment, appliances, and components (96,700); furniture and related products (94,700); plastics and rubber products (72,800); motor vehicles and parts (34,800); and miscellaneous manufactured goods (107,600). Several service sectors were also hit hard, by indirect job losses, including administrative and support and waste management and remediation services (196,900) and professional, scientific, and technical services (169,900).
The 3.2 million U.S. jobs lost or displaced by the goods trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013 were distributed among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with the biggest net losses occurring in California (564,200 jobs), Texas (304,700), New York (179,200), Illinois (132,500), Pennsylvania (122,600), North Carolina (119,600), Florida (115,700), Ohio (106,400), Massachusetts (97,200), and Georgia (93,700).
In percentage terms, the jobs lost or displaced due to the growing goods trade deficit with China in the 10 hardest-hit states ranged from 2.44 percent to 3.67 percent of the total state employment: Oregon (62,700 jobs lost or displaced, equal to 3.67 percent of total state employment), California (564,200 jobs, 3.43 percent), New Hampshire (22,700 jobs, 3.31 percent), Minnesota (83,300 jobs, 3.05 percent), Massachusetts (97,200 jobs, 2.96 percent), North Carolina (119,600 jobs, 2.85 percent), Texas (304,700 jobs, 2.66 percent), Rhode Island (13,200 jobs, 2.58 percent), Vermont (8,200 jobs, 2.51 percent), and Idaho (16,700 jobs, 2.44 percent).
The hardest-hit congressional districts were concentrated in states that were heavily exposed to the growing U.S.-China trade deficit in computer and electronic parts and other durable goods industries such as furniture as well nondurable industries such as textiles and apparel. The three hardest-hit congressional districts were all located in Silicon Valley in California, including the 17th (South Bay, encompassing Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Fremont, Newark, North San Jose, and Miltpitas2), which lost 61,500 jobs, equal to 17.77 percent of all jobs in the district), the 18th Congressional District (including parts of San Jose, Palo Alto, Redwood City, Mountain View, and Los Gatos), which lost 50,700 jobs, 14.72 percent), and the 19th Congressional District (most of San Jose and other parts of Santa Clara County, which lost 39,900 jobs, 12.31 percent of all jobs). Of the top 20 hardest-hit districts, eight were in California (in rank order, the 17th, 18th, 19th, 15th, 40th, 34th, 52nd, and 45th), six were in Texas (31st, 3rd, 10th, 18th, 17th, and 2nd), and one each in Oregon (1st), Massachusetts (3rd), Georgia (14th), Minnesota (1st), New York (18th), and Illinois (6th). Job losses in these districts ranged from 13,900 jobs to 61,500 jobs, and 4.28 percent to 17.77 percent of total district jobs.
The job displacement estimates in this study are conservative. They include only the jobs directly or indirectly displaced by trade, and exclude jobs in domestic wholesale and retail trade or advertising; they also exclude respending employment.3 They also do not account for the fact that during the Great Recession of 2007–2009, and continuing through 2013, jobs displaced by China trade reduced wages and spending, which led to further job losses.
Further, the jobs impact of the U.S. trade deficit with China is not limited to job loss and displacement and the associated direct wages losses. Competition with low-wage workers from less-developed countries such as China has driven down wages for workers in U.S. manufacturing and reduced the wages and bargaining power of similar, non-college-educated workers throughout the economy, as previous EPI research has shown. The affected population includes essentially all workers with less than a four-year college degree—roughly 70 percent of the workforce, or about 100 million workers (U.S. Census Bureau 2012).
As earlier EPI research has shown, trade with China between 2001 and 2011 displaced 2.7 million workers, who suffered a direct loss of $37.0 billion in reduced wages alone in 2011 (Scott 2013a). The nation’s 100 million non-college educated workers suffered a total loss of roughly $180 billion due to increased trade with low-wage countries (Bivens 2013). These indirect wage losses were nearly five times greater than the direct losses suffered by workers displaced by China trade, and the pool of affected workers was nearly 40 times larger (100 million non-college-educated workers versus 2.7 million displaced workers).
The U.S. trade deficit with China has increased since China entered into the WTO
Proponents of China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) frequently claimed that it would create jobs in the United States, increase U.S. exports, and improve the trade deficit with China.4 In 2000, President Bill Clinton claimed that the agreement then being negotiated to allow China into the WTO would create “a win-win result for both countries.” Exports to China “now support hundreds of thousands of American jobs,” and these figures “can grow substantially with the new access to the Chinese market the WTO agreement creates,” he said (Clinton 2000, 9–10).
China’s entry into the WTO in 2001 was supposed to bring it into compliance with an enforceable, rules-based regime that would require China to open its markets to imports from the United States and other nations by reducing tariffs and addressing nontariff barriers to trade. Promoters of liberalized U.S.-China trade argued that the United States would benefit because of increased exports to a large and growing consumer market in China. The United States also negotiated a series of special safeguard measures designed to limit the disruptive effects of surging imports from China on domestic producers.
However, as a result of China’s currency manipulation and other trade-distorting practices, including extensive subsidies, legal and illegal barriers to imports, dumping, and suppression of wages and labor rights, the envisioned flow of U.S. exports to China did not occur. Further, the agreement spurred foreign direct investment (FDI) in Chinese enterprises, which has expanded China’s manufacturing sector at the expense of the United States. Finally, the core of the agreement failed to include any protections to maintain or improve labor or environmental standards or to prohibit currency manipulation.
In retrospect, the promises about jobs and exports misrepresented the real effects of trade on the U.S. economy: Trade leads to both job creation and job loss or displacement. (This paper describes the net effect of trade on employment as jobs “lost or displaced,” with the terms “lost” and “displaced” used interchangeably.) Increases in U.S. exports tend to create jobs in the United States, but increases in imports lead to job loss—by destroying existing jobs and preventing new job creation—as imports displace goods that otherwise would have been made in the United States by domestic workers. This is what has occurred with China since it entered the WTO; the United States’ widening trade deficit with China is costing U.S. jobs.
From 2001 to 2013, imports from China increased dramatically, rising from $102.1 billion in 2001 to $438.2 billion in 2013, as shown in Table 1.5 U.S. exports to China rose rapidly from 2001 to 2013, but from a much smaller base, from $18.0 billion in 2001 to $114.0 billion in 2013. As a result, China’s exports to the United States in 2013 were almost four times greater than U.S. exports to China. These trade figures make the China trade relationship the United States’ most imbalanced by far (authors’ analysis of USITC 2014).
Table 1
Table 1 (continued)
U.S.-China goods trade and job displacement, 2001–2013
Change ($billions)
Percent change
2001
2008
2013
2001–2013
2008–2013
2001–2013
U.S. goods trade with China ($ billions, nominal)
U.S. domestic exports*
$18.0
$67.2
$114.0
$96.1
$46.9
534.9%
U.S. imports for consumption
$102.1
$337.5
$438.2
$336.1
$100.7
329.3%
U.S. trade balance
-$84.1
-$270.3
-$324.2
-$240.1
-$53.8
285.4%
Average annual change in the trade balance
-$21.8
-$10.8
11.9%
Change (thousands of jobs)
Percent change
U.S. trade-related jobs supported and displaced (thousands of jobs)
U.S. domestic exports–jobs supported
161.4
499.2
767.5
606.2
268.4
375.6%
U.S. imports for consumption–jobs displaced
1,127.7
3,620.1
4,890.9
3,763.3
1,270.8
333.7%
U.S. trade deficit–net jobs displaced
966.3
3,121.0
4,123.4
3,157.1
1,002.4
326.7%
Average annual change in net jobs displaced
287.0
200.5
12.9%
*Domestic exports are goods produced in the United States and exclude foreign exports (re-exports), i.e., goods produced in other countries and shipped through the United States. Total exports as reported by the U.S. International Trade Commission include re-exports. Total exports were estimated to be $121.7 billion in 2013, and U.S. re-exports to China represent 6.33 percent of total exports. The employment estimates shown here are based on domestic exports only. See endnotes 5 and 6 for additional details.
Source: Authors' analysis of U.S. Census Bureau (2013), U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC 2014), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS 2014b), and BLS Employment Projections program (BLS-EP 2014a and 2014b). For a more detailed explanation of data sources and computations, see the appendix.
Overall, the U.S. goods trade deficit with China rose from $84.1 billion in 2001, the year China entered the WTO, to $324.2 billion in 2013, an increase of $240.1 billion, as shown in Table 1. Put another way, since China entered the WTO in 2001, the U.S. trade deficit with China has increased annually by $21.8 billion, or 11.9 percent, on average. Between 2008 and 2013, the U.S. goods trade deficit with China increased 53.8 billion, as shown in Table 1. This 19.9 percent increase occurred despite the collapse in world trade between 2008 and 2009 caused by the Great Recession and a decline in the U.S. trade deficit with the rest of the world of 16.1 percent between 2008 and 2013 (according to the authors’ analysis of U.S. ITC 2014). As a result, China’s share of the overall U.S. goods trade deficit increased from 29.4 percent in 2008 to 37.3 percent in 2013.6
The growing trade deficit with China has led to U.S. job losses
Each $1 billion in exports to China from the United States supports some American jobs. However, each $1 billion in imports from China displaces the American workers who would have been employed making these products in the United States. The net employment effect of trade depends on the changes in the trade balance. An improving trade balance can support job creation, but a growing trade deficit usually results in growing net U.S. job displacement.
Trade and employment models
The Economic Policy Institute and other researchers have examined the job impacts of trade in recent years by subtracting the job opportunities lost to imports from those gained through exports. This report uses standard input-output models and data to estimate the jobs displaced by trade. Many reports by economists in the public and private sectors have used this type of all-but-identical methodology to estimate jobs gained or displaced by trade, including Groshen, Hobijn, and McConnell (2005) of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Bailey and Lawrence (2004) in the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. The U.S. Department of Commerce has published estimates of the jobs supported by U.S. exports (Tschetter 2010). That study used input-output and “employment requirements” tables from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections program (BLS-EP 2014a), the same source used to develop job displacement estimates in this report. The Tschetter report represents the work of a panel of experts from 20 federal agencies, including Mark Doms, then chief economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce (now undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs), and David Walters, chief economist at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The employment impacts of the growing U.S. trade deficit with China are estimated in this paper using an input-output model that estimates the direct and indirect labor requirements of producing output in a given domestic industry. The model includes 195 U.S. industries, 77 of which are in the manufacturing sector (see the box titled “Trade and employment models,” as well as the appendix, for details on model structure and data sources). The Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections program (BLS–EP) revised and updated its labor requirements model and related data in December 2013 (accessed by EPI in 2014; see BLS-EP 2014a and 2014b). Our models have been completely revised and updated using the newest, best available data for this report.
The model estimates the amount of labor (number of jobs) required to produce a given volume of exports and the labor displaced when a given volume of imports is substituted for domestic output.7 The difference between these two numbers is essentially the jobs displaced by the growing trade deficit, holding all else equal.
Jobs displaced by the growing China trade deficit are a net drain on employment in trade-related industries, especially those in manufacturing. Even if increases in demand in other sectors absorb all the workers displaced by trade (which is unlikely), job quality will likely suffer because many nontraded industries such as retail and home health care pay lower wages and have less comprehensive benefits than traded-goods industries (Scott 2013a).
As shown in the bottom half of Table 1, U.S. exports to China in 2001 supported 161,400 jobs, but U.S. imports displaced production that would have supported 1,127,700 jobs. Therefore, the $84.1 billion trade deficit in 2001 displaced 966,300 jobs in that year. Net job displacement rose to 3,121,000 jobs in 2008 and 4,123,400 jobs in 2013.
That means that since China’s entry into the WTO in 2001 and through 2013, the increase in the U.S.-China trade deficit eliminated or displaced 3,157,100 U.S. jobs. Also shown in Table 1, the U.S. trade deficit with China increased by $53.8 billion (or 19.9 percent) between 2008 and 2013. During that period, the number of jobs displaced increased by 32.1 percent.
Interactive
Figure A
Interactive
Cumulative U.S. jobs displaced by growing goods trade deficit with China, 2001–2013 (in thousands of jobs)
Year
Jobs displaced (thousands)
2001
0
2002
223.3
2003
464.7
2004
882.4
2005
1,359.6
2006
1,726.8
2007
2,087.4
2008
2,154.7
2009
1,861.6
2010
2,568.1
2011
2,911.4
2012
3,109.0
2013
3,157.1
Source: Authors' analysis of U.S. Census Bureau (2013), U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC 2014), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS 2014b), 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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Total jobs lost or displaced between 2008 and 2013 alone amounted to 1,002,400, either by the elimination of existing jobs or by the prevention of new job creation. Figure A shows visually how rising trade deficits have displaced a growing number of jobs every year since China joined the WTO, with the exception of 2009 (during the Great Recession). On average, 287,000 jobs per year have been lost or displaced since China’s entry into the WTO (as shown in Table 1, last row, data column four). The continuing growth of job displacement between 2008 and 2013 despite the relatively small increase in the bilateral trade deficit in this period reflects the relatively rapid growth of U.S. imports of computer and electronics parts from China, and the fact that the price index for most of these products fell continuously throughout the study period, as noted later in this paper. The share of U.S. imports from China accounted for by computer and electronic products (in current, nominal dollars) increased from 32.9 percent in 2008 to 37.8 percent in 2013 (according to the authors’ analysis of USITC 2014).
The trade deficit and job losses, by industry
Table 2
Table 2 (continued)
Change in U.S. goods trade with China, by industry, 2001–2013
Imports
Exports
Trade balance
Industry*
Change ($ billions, nominal)
Share of total change
Change ($ billions, nominal)
Share of total change
Change ($ billions, nominal)
Share of total change
Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting
$2.3
0.7%
$20.2
21.0%
$17.9
-7.5%
Mining
$0.0
0.0%
$2.6
2.7%
$2.7
-1.1%
Oil and gas
$0.0
0.0%
$0.1
0.1%
$0.2
-0.1%
Minerals and ores
$0.0
0.0%
$2.5
2.6%
$2.5
-1.0%
Manufacturing
$333.6
99.2%
$65.5
68.2%
$-268.1
111.7%
Nondurable goods
$49.0
14.6%
$6.1
6.4%
$-42.8
17.8%
Food
$3.1
0.9%
$3.9
4.0%
$0.8
-0.3%
Beverage and tobacco products
$0.0
0.0%
$1.5
1.5%
$1.5
-0.6%
Textile mills and textile product mills
$9.3
2.8%
$0.5
0.5%
$-8.8
3.7%
Apparel
$24.1
7.2%
$0.0
0.0%
$-24.1
10.0%
Leather and allied products
$12.4
3.7%
$0.3
0.3%
$-12.2
5.1%
Industrial supplies
$34.0
10.1%
$17.4
18.1%
$-16.6
6.9%
Wood products
$2.5
0.7%
$1.1
1.1%
$-1.4
0.6%
Paper
$2.7
0.8%
$2.0
2.0%
$-0.7
0.3%
Printed matter and related products
$1.6
0.5%
$0.1
0.1%
$-1.5
0.6%
Petroleum and coal products
$0.1
0.0%
$1.4
1.4%
$1.3
-0.5%
Chemicals
$11.2
3.3%
$11.5
11.9%
$0.2
-0.1%
Plastics and rubber products
$12.2
3.6%
$1.0
1.0%
$-11.2
4.7%
Nonmetallic mineral products
$3.8
1.1%
$0.4
0.4%
$-3.4
1.4%
Durable goods
$250.6
74.6%
$42.0
43.7%
$-208.7
86.9%
Primary metal
$3.4
1.0%
$2.6
2.7%
$-0.8
0.3%
Fabricated metal products
$14.5
4.3%
$1.6
1.7%
$-12.9
5.4%
Machinery
$20.4
6.1%
$7.3
7.6%
$-13.2
5.5%
Computer and electronic parts
$141.3
42.0%
$6.8
7.0%
$-134.5
56.0%
Computer and peripheral equipment
$60.0
17.8%
$-0.4
-0.4%
$-60.3
25.1%
Communications, audio, and video equipment
$62.5
18.6%
$-0.2
-0.2%
$-62.7
26.1%
Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments
$5.0
1.5%
$4.5
4.7%
$-0.5
0.2%
Semiconductor and other electronic components, and reproducing magnetic and optical media
$13.8
4.1%
$2.8
2.9%
$-11.0
4.6%
Electrical equipment, appliances, and components
$23.3
6.9%
$1.5
1.6%
$-21.7
9.1%
Transportation equipment
$11.4
3.4%
$19.6
20.4%
$8.2
-3.4%
Motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts
$9.8
2.9%
$10.0
10.4%
$0.2
-0.1%
Aerospace products and parts
$0.7
0.2%
$9.5
9.9%
$8.8
-3.7%
Railroad, ship, and other transportation equipment
$0.9
0.3%
$0.1
0.1%
$-0.8
0.3%
Furniture and related products
$12.3
3.6%
$0.1
0.1%
$-12.2
5.1%
Miscellaneous manufactured commodities
$24.1
7.2%
$2.4
2.5%
$-21.7
9.0%
Information**
$0.0
0.0%
$0.1
0.1%
$0.1
0.0%
Scrap and second-hand goods
$0.3
0.1%
$7.7
8.0%
$7.4
-3.1%
Total change
$336.1
100.0%
$96.1
100.0%
$-240.1
100.0%
* Excludes utilities, construction, and service sectors, which reported no goods trade in this period.
** Includes publishing industries (excluding Internet); goods trade in this sector is concentrated in NAICS 5111, Newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishers.
Source: Authors' analysis of U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC 2014). For a more detailed explanation of the data sources and computations, see the appendix.
The composition of imports from China is changing in fundamental ways, with significant, negative implications for certain kinds of high-skill, high-wage jobs once thought to be the hallmark of the U.S. economy. China is moving rapidly “upscale,” from low-tech, low-skilled, labor-intensive industries such as apparel, footwear, and basic electronics to more capital- and skills-intensive industries such as computers, electrical machinery, and motor vehicle parts. It has also developed a rapidly growing trade surplus in high-technology products.
Table 2 provides a snapshot of the changes in goods trade flows between 2001 and 2013, by industry, for exports, imports, and the trade balance. The rapid growth of the bilateral trade deficit in computer and electronic parts (including computers, parts, semiconductors, and audio and video equipment) accounted for 56.0 percent of the $240.1 billion increase in the U.S. trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013. In 2013, the total U.S. trade deficit with China was $324.2 billion—$154.4 billion of which was in computer and electronic parts (trade flows by industry in 2001 and 2013 are shown in Supplemental Table 5, available at the end of this document.
Table 2 shows that the growth in manufactured imports explained 99.2 percent of total growth in imports from China between 2001 and 2013, and included a wide array of products. Computer and electronic parts were responsible for 42.0 percent of the growth in imports in this period, including computer equipment ($60.0 billion, or 17.8 percent of the overall growth in imports) and communications, audio, and video equipment ($62.5 billion, or 18.6 percent). Other major importing sectors included apparel ($24.1 billion, or 7.2 percent) and miscellaneous manufactured commodities ($24.1 billion, or 7.2 percent).
As Table 2 shows, manufacturing was the top sector exporting to China—68.2 percent of the growth in exports to China between 2001 and 2013 was in manufactured goods, totaling $65.5 billion. Within manufacturing, key export-growth industries included chemicals ($11.5 billion, or 11.9 percent of the growth in exports), aerospace products and parts ($9.5 billion, or 9.9 percent), motor vehicles and parts ($10.0 billion, or 10.4 percent), and machinery ($7.3 billion, or 7.6 percent). Scrap and second-hand goods industries (which support no jobs, according to BLS–EP 2014a models8) accounted for 8.0 percent ($7.7 billion) of the growth in exports. Agricultural exports, which were dominated by corn, soybeans, and other cash grains, grew faster than any individual manufacturing industry, increasing $20.2 billion (21.0 percent of the total increase) between 2001 and 2013. Nonetheless, the overall scale of U.S. exports to China in 2013 was dwarfed by imports from China in that year, which exceeded the value of exports by nearly 4 to 1, as shown in Table 1.
The import data in Table 2 reflect China’s rapid expansion into higher-value-added commodities once considered strengths of the United States, such as computer and electronic parts, which accounted for 37.8 percent ($165.6 billion) of U.S. imports from China in 2013 (as shown in Supplemental Table 5. This growth is apparent in the shifting trade balance in advanced technology products (ATP), a broad category of high-end technology goods trade tracked by the U.S. Census Bureau (but not broken out in Table 2, which uses U.S. International Trade Commission data).9 ATP includes the more advanced elements of the computer and electronic parts industry as well as other sectors such as biotechnology, life sciences, aerospace, nuclear technology, and flexible manufacturing. The ATP sector includes some auto parts; China is now one of the top suppliers of auto parts to the United States, having recently surpassed Germany (Scott and Wething 2012).
In 2013, the United States had a $116.9 billion trade deficit with China in ATP, reflecting a ten-fold increase from $11.8 billion in 2002.10 This ATP deficit was responsible for 36.0 percent of the total U.S.-China trade deficit in 2013. It dwarfs the $35.6 billion surplus in ATP that the United States had with the rest of the world in 2013, the result of a 5.0 percent annual increase in U.S. ATP exports to the rest of the world between 2002 and 2013. As a result of the U.S. ATP deficit with China, the United States ran an overall deficit in ATP products in 2013 (of $81.3 billion), as it has in every year since 2002 (U.S. Census Bureau 2014b).
Table 3
Table 3 (continued)
Net U.S. jobs created or displaced by goods trade with China, by industry, 2001–2013
Industry
Total
Share of total jobs displaced
Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting
87,900
-2.8%
Mining
-1,600
0.1%
Oil and gas
-1,200
0.0%
Minerals and ores
-400
0.0%
Utilities
-10,900
0.3%
Construction
-14,700
0.5%
Manufacturing
-2,391,500
75.7%
Nondurable goods
-375,700
11.9%
Food
-7,500
0.2%
Beverage and tobacco products
2,700
-0.1%
Textile mills and textile product mills
-106,800
3.4%
Apparel
-203,900
6.5%
Leather and allied products
-60,100
1.9%
Industrial supplies
-200,300
6.3%
Wood products
-22,100
0.7%
Paper
-24,300
0.8%
Printed matter and related products
-30,700
1.0%
Petroleum and coal products
-900
0.0%
Chemicals
-22,100
0.7%
Plastics and rubber products
-72,800
2.3%
Nonmetallic mineral products
-27,400
0.9%
Durable goods
-1,815,600
57.5%
Primary metal
-42,300
1.3%
Fabricated metal products
-141,200
4.5%
Machinery
-70,100
2.2%
Computer and electronic parts
-1,249,100
39.6%
Computer and peripheral equipment
-732,900
23.2%
Communications, audio, and video equipment
-234,700
7.4%
Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments
-11,900
0.4%
Semiconductors and other electronic components, and reproducing magnetic and optical media
-269,600
8.5%
Electrical equipment, appliances, and components
-96,700
3.1%
Transportation equipment
-14,000
0.4%
Motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts
-34,800
1.1%
Aerospace products and parts
23,500
-0.7%
Railroad, ship, and other transportation equipment
-2,800
0.1%
Furniture and related products
-94,700
3.0%
Miscellaneous manufactured commodities
-107,600
3.4%
Wholesale trade
0
0.0%
Retail trade
0
0.0%
Transportation and warehousing
-94,200
3.0%
Information
-81,400
2.6%
Finance and insurance
-40,100
1.3%
Real estate and rental and leasing
-24,300
0.8%
Professional, scientific, and technical services
-169,900
5.4%
Management of companies and enterprises
-113,400
3.6%
Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services
-196,900
6.2%
Education services
-2,200
0.1%
Healthcare and social assistance
-1,500
0.0%
Arts, entertainment, and recreation
-12,100
0.4%
Accommodation and food services
-46,700
1.5%
Other services (except public administration)
-27,500
0.9%
Public administration
-16,100
0.5%
Subtotal, nonmanufacturing
-765,600
24.3%
Total*
-3,157,100
*Subcategory and overall totals may vary slightly due to rounding.
Source: Authors' analysis of U.S. Census Bureau (2013), U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC 2014), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS 2014b), and BLS Employment Projections program (BLS-EP 2014a and 2014b). For a more detailed explanation of data sources and computations, see the appendix.
Trade deficits are highly correlated with job loss or displacement by industry, as shown in Table 3. The growing trade deficit with China eliminated 2,391,500 manufacturing jobs between 2001 and 2013, more than three-fourths (75.7 percent) of the total. By far the largest job displacements occurred in the computer and electronic parts industry, which lost 1,249,100 jobs (39.6 percent of the 3.2 million jobs displaced overall). This industry includes computer and peripheral equipment (732,900 jobs, or 23.2 percent of the overall jobs displaced), semiconductors and components (269,600 jobs, or 8.5 percent), and communications, audio, and video equipment (234,700 jobs, or 7.4 percent). Other hard-hit industries included apparel (203,900 jobs displaced, equal to 6.5 percent of the total), textile mills and textile product mills (106,800, or 3.4 percent), fabricated metal products (141,200, or 4.5 percent), furniture and related products (94,700, or 3.0 percent), plastics and rubber products (72,800,or 2.3 percent), motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts (34,800, or 1.1 percent), and miscellaneous manufactured commodities (107,600 jobs, or 3.4 percent). Several service industries, which provide key inputs to traded-goods production, experienced significant job displacement, including administrative and support and waste management and remediation services (196,900 jobs, or 6.2 percent) and professional, scientific, and technical services (169,900 jobs, or 5.4 percent).
These job displacement estimates are based on changes in the real value of exports and imports. For example, while the share of U.S. imports accounted for by computer and electronic parts from China rose from 23.8 percent in 2001 to 37.8 percent in 2013 (to $165.6 billion, as shown in Supplemental Table 5), the average price indexes (deflators) for most of these products fell sharply between 2001 and 2013—40.5 percent on a trade-weighted basis. Thus, the real value of computer and electronic imports increased more than twelvefold in this period, rising from $19.5 billion to $236.2 billion in 2013 in constant 2005 dollars (authors’ analysis of real trade flows—see methodology appendix for data sources and computational details).11
Job losses by state
Growing U.S. trade deficits with China have reduced demand for goods produced in every region of the United States and led to job displacement in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as shown in Table 4 and Figure B. (Supplemental Table 1 ranks the states by the number of net jobs displaced, while Supplemental Table 2 ranks the states by jobs displaced as a share of total state jobs and presents the states alphabetically.) Table 4 shows that jobs displaced from 2001 to 2013 due to the growing goods trade deficit with China ranged from 2.44 percent to 3.67 percent of total state employment in the 10 hardest-hit states ranked by job shares displaced: Oregon, California, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Idaho. As shown in Supplemental Table 1, 564,200 jobs were lost in California, compared with 304,700 in Texas, 179,200 in New York, and 132,500 in Illinois. The 3.2 million U.S. jobs displaced due to the growing trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013 represented 2.25 percent of total U.S. employment, as shown in Table 4.
Figure B
Net U.S. jobs displaced due to goods trade deficit with China as a share of total state employment, 2001–2013
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State
Jobs displaced as share
of state employment
Alabama
2.13%
Alaska
0.76%
Arizona
2.28%
Arkansas
1.98%
California
3.43%
Colorado
2.38%
Connecticut
2.04%
Delaware
1.31%
District of Columbia
0.90%
Florida
1.43%
Georgia
2.23%
Hawaii
0.97%
Idaho
2.44%
Illinois
2.24%
Indiana
2.31%
Iowa
1.60%
Kansas
1.38%
Kentucky
2.24%
Louisiana
0.93%
Maine
1.77%
Maryland
1.47%
Massachusetts
2.96%
Michigan
1.91%
Minnesota
3.05%
Mississippi
1.71%
Missouri
1.61%
Montana
0.75%
Nebraska
1.29%
Nevada
1.26%
New Hampshire
3.31%
New Jersey
2.22%
New Mexico
1.44%
New York
2.00%
North Carolina
2.85%
North Dakota
0.65%
Ohio
2.04%
Oklahoma
1.74%
Oregon
3.67%
Pennsylvania
2.09%
Rhode Island
2.58%
South Carolina
2.27%
South Dakota
1.20%
Tennessee
2.24%
Texas
2.66%
Utah
2.14%
Vermont
2.51%
Virginia
1.65%
Washington
1.79%
West Virginia
1.26%
Wisconsin
2.43%
Wyoming
0.59%
Total
2.25%
* 10 least-impacted states, plus D.C.
** 10 next-least-impacted states
*** 10 midde-impacted states
**** 10 next-most-impacted states
***** 10 most-impacted states
Source: Authors' analysis of U.S. Census Bureau (2013), U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC 2014), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS 2014b), 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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Table 4
Table 4 (continued)
Net U.S. jobs displaced due to goods trade deficit with China, by state, 2001–2013 (ranked by jobs displaced as a share of total state employment)
Rank
State
Net jobs displaced
State employment (in 2011)
Jobs displaced as share
of state employment
1
Oregon
62,700
1,710,300
3.67%
2
California
564,200
16,426,700
3.43%
3
New Hampshire
22,700
684,800
3.31%
4
Minnesota
83,300
2,728,900
3.05%
5
Massachusetts
97,200
3,284,700
2.96%
6
North Carolina
119,600
4,195,800
2.85%
7
Texas
304,700
11,455,100
2.66%
8
Rhode Island
13,200
511,200
2.58%
9
Vermont
8,200
327,300
2.51%
10
Idaho
16,700
684,900
2.44%
11
Wisconsin
68,600
2,819,500
2.43%
12
Colorado
59,400
2,492,400
2.38%
13
Indiana
67,800
2,934,500
2.31%
14
Arizona
61,200
2,688,000
2.28%
15
South Carolina
44,700
1,968,900
2.27%
16
Tennessee
62,500
2,784,500
2.24%
17
Kentucky
41,100
1,838,400
2.24%
18
Illinois
132,500
5,926,900
2.24%
19
Georgia
93,700
4,193,800
2.23%
20
New Jersey
92,000
4,152,500
2.22%
21
Utah
27,000
1,260,800
2.14%
22
Alabama
42,100
1,981,100
2.13%
23
Pennsylvania
122,600
5,853,300
2.09%
24
Ohio
106,400
5,213,500
2.04%
25
Connecticut
35,500
1,742,500
2.04%
26
New York
179,200
8,959,000
2.00%
27
Arkansas
24,500
1,235,800
1.98%
28
Michigan
80,100
4,191,900
1.91%
29
Washington
55,900
3,118,000
1.79%
30
Maine
11,400
643,100
1.77%
31
Oklahoma
29,300
1,681,800
1.74%
32
Mississippi
20,200
1,181,300
1.71%
33
Virginia
63,500
3,860,100
1.65%
34
Missouri
44,200
2,742,100
1.61%
35
Iowa
24,600
1,538,800
1.60%
36
Maryland
42,600
2,894,600
1.47%
37
New Mexico
12,500
869,800
1.44%
38
Florida
115,700
8,101,900
1.43%
39
Kansas
19,100
1,389,000
1.38%
40
Delaware
5,500
420,400
1.31%
41
Nebraska
12,200
943,600
1.29%
42
Nevada
15,200
1,204,900
1.26%
43
West Virginia
9,400
748,600
1.26%
44
South Dakota
5,000
415,600
1.20%
45
Hawaii
6,100
629,500
0.97%
46
Louisiana
18,300
1,973,900
0.93%
47
District of Columbia
2,800
310,600
0.90%
48
Alaska
2,600
344,300
0.76%
49
Montana
3,600
480,000
0.75%
50
North Dakota
2,400
370,800
0.65%
51
Wyoming
1,700
290,000
0.59%
Total*
3,154,300
140,399,600
2.25%
*Subcategory and overall totals may vary slightly due to rounding.
Source: Authors' analysis of U.S. Census Bureau (2013), U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC 2014), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS 2014b), and BLS Employment Projections program (BLS-EP 2014a and 2014b). For a more detailed explanation of data sources and computations, see the appendix.
Figure B shows the broad impact of the growing trade deficit with China across the United States, with no areas exempt. Job losses have been most concentrated in states with high-tech industries, such as California, Massachusetts, Oregon, Minnesota, Idaho, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado, and in manufacturing states, including New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Vermont. Other hard-hit states include traditional manufacturing powers such as Rhode Island, South Carolin