Number of jobs lost to foreign competition up since Trump’s election: report

The number of U.S. jobs eliminated due to foreign competition since President Trump’s election last year has largely kept pace with previous years, according to a new report.

An analysis of Labor Department data by the labor coalition Good Jobs Nation found that more than 93,000 U.S. jobs have been eliminated since Trump’s election due to foreign trade.

That’s roughly on par with the previous five years, which saw an average of 87,500 jobs per year eliminated. 

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The coalition’s analysis also found that the number of jobs outsourced by federal contractors has actually risen since Trump was elected. Since November 2016, some of the biggest federal contractors have offshored some 10,269 jobs, making up 11 percent of trade-related layoffs, compared to 4 percent in the previous five years.

Workers who lose their jobs due to foreign trade are eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), a program that allows them to receive benefits such as subsidized health insurance and extended unemployment benefits.

Good Jobs Nation’s analysis relied on the Labor Department’s TAA data to track trade-related layoffs, according to the news outlet, though not every job eliminated was offshore and some job losses may have been caused by other factors, such as cheaper imports.

Good Jobs Nation, which says it fights “to hold the President and all politicians accountable to working families,” campaigns to stop offshoring and to increase the minimum wage. The coalition’s analysis was first reported by HuffPost.

On the campaign trail and since taking office, Trump has vowed to stymie the flow of U.S. jobs moving overseas, laying out an ambitious goal to renegotiate trade deals, lower the tax burden on American companies and pressure businesses to keep their operations in the U.S.

His administration is currently renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, a deal between the U.S., Mexico and Canada that has frequently been the target of Trump’s ire.

Updated at 2:53 p.m.