Study Estimates Job Loss Impact Of Walmart’s China Imports

A study by a progressive research organization accuses Walmart of displacing or eliminating more than 400,000 high-paying American manufacturing jobs by importing many billions of dollars’ worth of products from China over a twelve-year period ending in 2013. The Economic Policy Institute says Walmart’s imports from China in 2013 alone totaled $49 billion. The U.S. trade deficit with China in 2013 was $324 billion. The lost or moved jobs represented about 13 percent of the 3.2 million total jobs lost or displaced over those same years due to the China trade deficit. Walmart criticized the data and conclusions of the study as mostly guesswork, because retailers do not disclose itemizations of imports.