International trade results in 52,265 lost Ohio jobs, new report finds that jobs continue to vanish during economic recovery
Posted October 05, 2004 in Press Releases
Between January 1995 and July 2004, 52,265 Ohio jobs were certified by the federal government as having been lost due to international trade, according to an updated International Trade and Job Loss in Ohio report, to be released today by Policy Matters Ohio. The report will be released at a forum on manufacturing employment held in conjunction with the vice presidential debate in Cleveland. The forum, from noon to 1:30 in the Peter B. Lewis building on the Case Western Reserve University campus, will also feature economist Susan Helper and John Colm, director of the Westside Industrial Retention and Expansion Network.
The report examines data from the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program to calculate a minimum estimate of trade-related job loss. The TAA program provides benefits to some manufacturing workers who lose their jobs for trade-related reasons. For job losses to be certified by the TAA program, a petition requesting certification must be filed, the U.S. Department of Labor must investigate and deem that job losses were due to trade, and workers must then apply for the assistance. Because these conditions are difficult to meet, this report provides a minimum estimate of job loss due to trade.
A January 2004 Policy Matters study used TAA data through October 2003. Today s release updates findings to cover the period between November 2003 and July 2004. It finds:
- The majority of certifications (32,118 or 61.5%) occurred since January 2001.
- During the period of most extreme job loss, from January 1999 to January 2004, TAA certifications accounted for 19% of the net decline in Ohio s manufacturing employment.
- During the period covered by the update (November 2003-July 2004), when the country was officially in an economic recovery, an estimated 6,531 Ohio workers received TAA certifications. Relocation of production facilities to other countries accounted for 2,082 (31.8%) of these job losses.
- During the update period, an additional 1,326 Ohio workers were TAA-certified because their companies shifted production to Mexico. Since 1995, 16,298 workers (31.2% of total certifications) received TAA certifications for NAFTA-related reasons. Nearly two-thirds of these job losses were due to production shifts to Mexico. During the update period, TAA certifications occurred in 35 Ohio counties, including 690 workers in Cuyahoga County, 500 or more workers in Hamilton and Montgomery Counties, and 400 or more in Hocking and Lake Counties.
"Trade has been responsible for a large number of lost jobs in Ohio, both before, during, and since the 2001 recession, said Jon Honeck, report author and research analyst at Policy Matters. As the vice presidential candidates debate in Cleveland, we will be listening for ideas on how federal policy can prevent trade-related job loss and assist those who suffer from it."
Policy Matters is a non-partisan policy research institute on the web at www.policymattersohio.org.