Report: U.S. Lost 1.5 Mln Jobs to China in 1989-2003

[RamboLiberal]

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050111/2005-01-11T080859Z_01_N10542739_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-TRADE-CHINA-USA-DC.html

The United States lost nearly 1.5 million jobs between 1989 and 2003 because of increased trade with China, according to a report released on Tuesday by a government watchdog committee.

The report was prepared by the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressionally-appointed panel that has pushed for a tough U.S. approach to China on trade.

The study estimates that imports from China displaced 1.659 million jobs between 1989 and 2003, while exports to that country generated only 199,000 additional U.S. jobs.

The job losses have accelerated and moved into unexpected new sectors as the trade deficit -- which reflects the gap between imports and exports -- with China skyrocketed to a record $124 billion in 2003, report author and EPI senior international trade economist Robert Scott said.

[Robert Oak]

1. i'll bet that number is actually conservative

It does seem low considering thousands of manufacturing companies
moved operations to China from 2001 to present.

I hope they release a total jobs lost due to trade policy report
worldwide.

[mhr]

2. Does Not Include Other Asian Countries - Malaysia, India, etc.

The total numbers must be much higher since this only counts lost jobs to China.

[Democrats_win]

3. Important report: since until now even Harpers Magazine has

suggested that we haven't really lost jobs to China or Asia.

They say that the jobs were just lost because of 9/11 and the resulting bad economy.

I don't necessarily belive that, because in 2001, many electronics firms here closed and now the products are being built in Asia.

I suspect in just the past few years five million or more US jobs have been lost to Asia. The article didn't even mention the Wal-Mart factor which is now getting greater attention.

[Kokonoe]

6. You hit the nail on the head.

Move along...move along... move along

[Krupskaya]

4. I learned the most stunning thing today:

I was reading an article about a company here in MN that got picked to supply Wal-Mart with a product. The product sold very well and everyone was happy. After a month or two, Wal-Mart came to the company and said, "Your product is selling well, but we could make a bigger profit if you lowered your production costs. Please move your production from the States to China. Don't forget, we can stop buying from you any time. Thanks."

So it's not even that Wal-Mart buys Chinese crap because they can't get it anywhere else. They do it because they make their suppliers do it. AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!

[Bono71]

5. Ugh...that sucks.

[mulethree]

7. Phase 1

Having moved to China to reduce costs, they will again be visited by WalMart with 'suggestions' on how to further reduce costs by squeezing more out of the chinese workers.

[Krupskaya]

8. Yah, I was shocked.

When I read the article, I was thinking, "Dude, do you roll over for anyone, or just the big guns?" Pretty soon they'll just eliminate the middle man, now that he's done doing the dirty work for them, and they'll buy directly from the manufacturer.

[RamboLiberal]

11. Read the sad story of Etch a Sketch leaving Ohio

For 40 years workers in Bryan made Etch A Sketch, a children's drawing toy that has outlasted almost all others, and to a significant extent Etch A Sketch made Bryan.

This town of about 8,000, tucked into the northwestern corner of Ohio, has a tool and die factory, a tire company and a candy maker. But Etch A Sketch, the signature product of the Ohio Art Company, was Bryan's mascot. It marched in Bryan's parades. It was the mayor's calling card and the town's alter ego.

"You tell people you're from Bryan and they look at you blankly," said Carolyn Miller, a longtime assembly line worker at Ohio Art. "You tell them it's the home of Etch A Sketch, and they smile."

That was true, at least, until a winter day three years ago, a week before Christmas, when Ohio Art executives called representatives of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers Union into head offices and delivered the news. The Etch A Sketch line was moving to Shenzhen, China. About 100 union employees would lose their jobs.

The decision did not catch employees unaware. The mostly female work force had been training Chinese counterparts on the job. Cost pressures had been dragging down profits for years. Production of other Ohio Art toys, including Betty Spaghetty dolls, had already moved to China. But coming as the American economy entered a sharp downturn, the layoffs hit workers, and Bryan, hard. Three years later only a few Etch A Sketch assembly line workers have found other jobs. Most of those who did were lifetime employees of Ohio Art who were rehired in other departments, including a few who got jobs unpacking crates full of Etch A Sketches from China.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/globecon/etch.htm

Tell me again Ohio voters who voted for Bush - why?

[robcon]

9. This is a simplistic analysis.

The U.S. trade with China and other Asian countries was responsible for more U.S. job growth than the internet was in the late nineties. Free trade = economic growth = more, better jobs.

[VegasWolf]

10. Not so. No economy can survive without

a strong manufacturing base. Outsourcing jobs
depletes this base.

edit clarification