Trade and jobs

When US residents buy imports jobs are created or sustained elsewhere, but when foreign residents buy our exports jobs are created or sustained here. Erica Goshen, Bart Hobijn, and Margaret McConnell estimate the net effect of trade on US jobs. It is important to take both sides into account. Among their conclusions

the number of jobs lost through gross imports is nearly five times as large as the number we find for net imports. Thus, omitting the benefits of jobs created through export production - a common practice in discussions of offshoring - will substantially overstate the costs of trade for the U.S. labor market.