Public Citizen releases nationwide data showing trade policies have slashed jobs and farms

Public Citizen’s latest fact sheets track the consequences of NAFTA, WTO and current trade policies for workers, farmers and communities in every U.S. state. Since the mid-1990s the country has shed roughly 4.4 million manufacturing positions, with more than 3 million workers formally recorded as losing jobs to trade. Seven key 2024 battleground states together lost over one million manufacturing jobs, and union density in those states fell about 46 %, well above the national average.

The Northeast experienced the greatest regional contraction, losing over 40 % of its manufacturing jobs, while Southern states recorded the sharpest decline in farm numbers, especially Tennessee and North Carolina. Union membership fell dramatically in ten states, with South Dakota, Wisconsin and Arkansas seeing the deepest drops. Since 2022, Congress has not reauthorized Trade Adjustment Assistance, leaving more than 100 000 displaced workers without aid, many of them in Texas and Oregon.