Hawaii has lost 6,100 jobs to China and ranks 44th nationally among employment losses, according to a new study, but the figure differs from data gathered by the state.
The Economic Policy Institute reported Friday that the majority of job losses are in manufacturing, and that all but one congressional district has lost net job opportunities since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
The EPI study revealed that 2.4 million manufacturing jobs were lost between December 2001 and December 2013, or roughly two-thirds of all U.S. manufacturing jobs lost or displaced during that time.
The states encountering the most severe job losses were California (564,200), 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).
"This report leaves no doubt, if there ever was any, that the nation’s staggering trade deficit with China continues to be the single biggest impediment to a true jobs recovery, especially in regions with heavy concentrations of high-tech manufacturing," said Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, in a statement.
Global trade in advanced technology products is now dominated by China, the report said. The trade deficit in the computer and electronic parts industry resulted in the loss of 1.2 million jobs, the EPI says, noting that $154.4 billion of the $324.2 billion U.S. trade deficit with China in 2013 was in computer and electronic parts.
Statistics gathered by Hawaii show "about one-third of what they’re saying," said Bill Kunstman, spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.
The annual average number of manufacturing jobs as measured by the state in 2013 was at 13,500, versus 15,200 in 2002, a difference of only 1,700 — significantly less than the EPI figure.
The labor workforce in Hawaii, reflecting all the people who are employed and all the people who are unemployed, "hit a record in October … at 667,750," Kunstman said, and he noted the state’s unemployment rate is at 4.1 percent, down from a peak of 7.1 percent in July and August of 2009 during the recession.
The figures in the EPI report vary widely from state-gathered data across the board.
Analysts at EPI used the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Requirements matrix, "which shows how many jobs are indirectly supported by a job in a particular industry," said Dan Crawford, EPI spokesman.
"Hawaii lost 6,100 jobs between 2001 and 2013 due to trade with China," Crawford said. Some 2,800 jobs, or 45.9 percent of total jobs lost in Hawaii, were in manufacturing, he said.
Within the manufacturing sector, computers and peripherals lost 1,400 jobs (23 percent of the total number lost); apparel and accessories lost 600 (9.8 percent); and communications, audio and video equipment shed 300 (4.9 percent), Crawford said.
Otherwise, most of the other job losses were in service sectors including administrative, support, waste management and remediation services, which saw 1,000 jobs lost (16.4 percent).
Losses in other service-sector industries, such as professional, scientific and technical services, totaled 600 jobs (9.8 percent); the transportation sector, 500 jobs (8.2 percent); and accommodation and food services, which lost 400 jobs (6.6 percent).
"These service-sector job losses may not be as big a part of the losses as you’d expect, but their shares are all way above the national average," Crawford said.
On the Net:
www.epi.org/publication/china-trade-outsourcing-and-jobs
