fresh voices from the front lines of change

Democracy

Health

Climate

Housing

Education

Rural

Another $40 billion leaked out of our economy in August, taking jobs, factories and living standards with it. The U.S. Commerce Department reported that America's monthly goods trade deficit in August was $40.1 billion, down from $40.3 billion (revised from $40.5 billion.)

The trade deficit in goods with China fell a bit, to $30.2 billion in August. It fell from an all-time high of $30.9 billion the month before. This means U.S. employers can further threaten employees with moving their job to China if they don't shut up and accept lower wages, lower benefits, longer hours, loss of vacation time, taking work home, being on call at any time of the day or night and the rest of the "benefits" of "lower trade barriers."

The trade deficit with recent trade-agreement partner South Korea was $1.8 billion, down from $2.5 billion the previous month. Remember that we were promised jobs and prosperity from that trade agreement; we instead received job losses and a further draining of our economy.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing called this data, combined with only 4,000 new manufacturing jobs last month (the result of the huge trade deficit), "disappointing,"

The data marks a disappointing start to National Manufacturing Day, said Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) President Scott Paul:

"The past two months show manufacturing job gains have again stalled, at least temporarily. Numbers like these are a blow to the president’s goal of 1 million new manufacturing jobs in his second term. A large and persistent trade deficit and a paucity of investment in infrastructure are two obstacles that stand in the way of actual progress."

Pin It on Pinterest

Spread The Word!

Share this post with your networks.