Trading Away the Manufacturing Advantage

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China Trade Drives Down U.S. Wages and Benefits and Eliminates Good Jobs for U.S. Workers

The growing deficit with China is costing millions of U.S. jobs and billions of dollars in lost wages, especially in the manufacturing sector, shrinking the middle class and its purchasing power. Minorities and workers with a high school degree or less have been hit the hardest by these losses.

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The Takeaways

  1. Between 2001 and 2011, 2.7 million U.S. jobs were eliminated due to the trade deficit with China, and 2.1 million of these jobs were in manufacturing.

  2. Annual wage losses increase as the deficit with China increases. When workers found new jobs in industries that didn’t involve traded goods, they earned an average $13,505 in 2011.

  3. Contributing to the problem? China’s currency continues to be undervalued by as much as 30 to 40 percent, an export subsidy that acts as a de facto tax on all U.S. goods sent overseas.

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