Today, Stop “Trading” Away Missouri Jobs, a voter educational project on how our trade policies impact jobs and the economy, released the report, Offshoring the Missouri Economy: Free Trade Job Losses and Their Impact on Missouri Workers.

The study lays out the extent of trade-related job loss throughout the state, and finds that over the last decade, since passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Missouri has lost over 30,000 jobs in 84 of the state’s 114 counties and in virtually every sector of manufacturing. The report also found that despite promises from government leaders that negative impact on jobs from trade agreements would diminish over time, the loss of jobs is accelerating. In Missouri, it has increased by 50 percent annually since 2001.

“The job loss that we were able to uncover in this research is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Judy Ancel, the report’s author. “Until 2002, the government only tracked goods production jobs directly offshored or lost to imports. Even then, they missed many. They added a few indirect jobs, including some suppliers in November, 2002, but still do not include the mounting toll of service sector jobs. In fact, the job loss is far greater than official measurements and is a result of the many provisions in trade and investment agreements like NAFTA and the World Trade Organization which encourage companies to offshore jobs.”

The study tracks jobs certified by the Department of Labor for its Trade Adjustment Assistance Program. The jobs must have been lost because production moved abroad to a country with whom we have a free trade agreement or because there was an increase in imports from such countries.

Of Missouri’s job losses, it is no surprise that St. Louis ranks first with 3,276. What is surprising, though, given the relatively small size of its economy, is that St. Joseph, Missouri is second, having lost almost 3,000 jobs, two-thirds of them just since 2001. This year, St. Joseph has lost over 800 jobs with shutdowns or mass layoffs at Stetson Hat, Mead Paper, Lakeland Industries, and the Aegis Call Center.

Another significant finding is the impact on rural Missouri, because of the mass exodus of the state’s garment and shoe industries at a cost of 13,000 jobs. For example, rural Texas, Laclede and Mississippi Counties have lost jobs equivalent to between 8 and 10 percent of the size of their workforces. When the Lee Jean factory in Lebanon and the Stride Rite factory in Hamilton shut down, the workers have far fewer alternatives than do people in the big cities.

There is mounting evidence that trade-related job loss is affecting the standard of living of Missouri’s working families. Those who still have jobs live under a constant threat, which undercuts their ability to hold onto or improve wages and benefits by bargaining and organizing unions. For those who have already lost jobs, there is a number of studies which clearly show that workers involved in trade-related job loss earn between 10 and 30 percent less on the average in subsequent jobs.

The export of middle class manufacturing jobs, which were often unionized and included healthcare and pensions, is an important explanation for the so-called “jobless” and “wageless” recovery. Missouri lost about 39,000 manufacturing jobs since January of 2001.

“About one-third of them were trade-related and have left the country," Ancel said. "You don’t bounce back from that kind of job loss at the end of a recession. This is part of the reason why we see an over $1,000 decline in average family income and 40,000 more Missourians living in poverty."

The Stop “Trading” Away Missouri Jobs Project is part of a national effort by Americans for Democratic Action to educate the public about the trade agreements being negotiated by the Bush Administration and the effect of trade agreements on jobs and the economy. It is focusing on smaller cities and towns in Missouri and holding town hall meetings to illustrate the local impact of our trade policies on both workers and family farmers.

 “Working families have a choice this election year on trade policy and the continued offshoring of jobs, said  Lynn McCray. the project’s Missouri organizer. "We want to help them see the connections between government policy and their own economic insecurity.”

The project’s first town hall meeting will be Wednesday, September 8 at 7:00 p.m. at 1220 South Tenth Street in St. Joseph. The media is invited. There will also be meetings in north, central, southeastern and southwestern Missouri.