Study: China trade deficit is costing Mass. jobs

The growing trade deficit with China has cost Massachusetts nearly 60,000 jobs over the past several years, about two-thirds of them in manufacturing, according to a study.

The study, by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, used an economic model to estimate national job losses resulting from the trade deficit, and then apportioned them according to each state’s share of US employment.

A trade deficit occurs when a nation imports more than it exports. The trade deficit with China hit a record $256 billion in 2007. Between 2001 and 2007, the United States lost 2.3 million jobs, including 1.5 million manufacturing jobs, according to the study.

The China trade deficit cost Massachusetts nearly 40,000 manufacturing jobs, accounting for about one-third of all manufacturing job losses in the state during that period. Massachusetts’ manufacturing employment has been on the decline for years.
(By Robert Gavin, Globe staff)