It isn't the recession, stupid, it's China

China's unfair trade practices cost U.S. workers $37 billion in just one year, according to a new report by our friend Rob Scott at the <a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/trading-manufacturing-advantage-china-trade/" rel="nofollow">Economic Policy Institute</a>.<br /><br />That comes out to an average of $13,505 for every U.S. worker who lost a job in manufacturing because of China's rapacity. Scott assumed (correctly, we think) that workers laid off after their factory moved to China ended up making far less money as fast-food cooks, rental counter clerks and call center workers.<br /><br />Most news reports blamed "the recession" for the disappearance of good jobs. The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/28/how-the-recession-turned-middle-class-jobs-into-low-wage-jobs/" rel="nofollow">Washington Post</a>, for example, reported on a <a href="http://www.nelp.org/page/-/Job_Creation/LowWageRecovery2012.pdf?nocdn=1" rel="nofollow">National Employment Law Project</a> study in February:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Mid-wage occupations, paying between $13.83 and $21.13 per hour, made up about 60 percent of the job losses during the recession. But those mid-wage jobs have made up just 27 percent of the jobs gained during the recovery. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">By contrast, low-wage occupations paying less than $13.83 per hour have utterly dominated the recovery, with 58 percent of the job gains since 2010.</blockquote>Scott, though, puts the blame where it belongs: on China. He examined the impact of the U.S. trade deficit with China after it entered the World Trade Organization in 2001. Here are some of his other findings:<br /><ul><li>The increase in the U.S. trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2011 eliminated 2.7 million U.S. jobs, over 2.1 million (76.9 percent) of which were in manufacturing.</li><li>Growing U.S. trade deficits with China between 2001 and 2011 displaced a disproportionately large number of good jobs for minority workers—958,800 good jobs with excellent benefits, 35.0 percent of total jobs displaced.</li><li>China trade cost U.S. workers 997,700 good jobs with excellent benefits for workers without any college education </li><li>Workers with a bachelor’s degree or more education lost 1.057 million jobs</li><li>Rapidly growing China trade deficits cost nearly 1.1 million jobs in computer and electronic products between 2001 and 2011.</li></ul>Read the whole thing <a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/trading-manufacturing-advantage-china-trade/" rel="nofollow">here</a>.<br /><div><br /></div>

China low-wage jobs It isn't the recession, stupid, it's China

China's unfair trade practices cost U.S. workers $37 billion in just one year, according to a new report by our friend Rob Scott at the ...

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