The growing U.S. trade deficit with China has cost workers nearly 70,000 jobs in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia since 2001, according to a study released Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute.
Virginia lost 39,500 jobs, Maryland lost 26,600 jobs and the District lost 2,400 jobs, according to the survey, which relied on statistics from several government agencies. California suffered the most job losses during the period, with 325,800.
Virginia, Maryland and the District were ranked near the bottom in net job loss per share of state employment during the period, with the percentages at 1.12, 1.08, and 0.37, respectively. Idaho, the highest, was at 2.59 percent.
But Robert Scott, an economist at the think tank and author of the report, said the District and surrounding area should take little solace in those figures.
“Though [the area ranks] relatively low, we’re still talking about 40,000 jobs in Virginia, and 27,000 jobs in Maryland,” he said.
More than two-thirds of the lost jobs overall were in manufacturing. About 19,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in Virginia, one-third of which were in computer and electronic product industries, he said.
The U.S. deficit with China has increased from $83 billion in 2001 to $256 billion last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The 2.3 million workers displaced across the country have lost an average of $8,146 per worker, per year when they move into non-traded industries, said the report.
“Trade with China is a major source of [U.S.] job loss,” said Peter G. Morici, professor of business and public policy at the University of Maryland and a former director of the Office of Economics at the U.S. International Trade Commission. “It’s not caused by competitive advantage, but by the U.S. not looking out for its own trade interests.”
Scott said China’s growth is hurting Maryland’s steel producers in particular.
The steel industry in China is “just beginning to get the surge — China has been expanding steel capacity at an enormous clip,” he said.
Steel production in China rose by 10.5 percent in May, and its year-to-date total increased by 9.4 percent, to 216.1 million tons, according to a report from the Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau. Conversely, U.S. crude steel production increased slightly, by 0.5 percent, in May and by 5.4 percent, to 42.4 million tons in the year to date, according to the report.
The institute used data published this year by the U.S. International Trade Commission, Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics.
