Trump’s Tariffs Bring Beijing’s Model to Washington
The U.S. economy will be pushed toward domestic investment and away from domestic consumption.
Beijing style.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Many Americans still think of the U.S. economy as increasingly dominated by knowledge and technology workers. In fact, when it comes to jobs growth in this decade, blue-collar industries have outpaced service industries, and the trend is accelerating. Tariffs may amplify this trend — making the U.S. economy more like China’s economic model.
Throughout the economic expansion in the 1980s and 1990s, and again during the 2000s, there was one labor market trend you could count on: services job growth outpacing job growth in goods-producing sectors like manufacturing and construction. But for the past seven years, that has no longer been the case. The June payrolls report showed that goods-producing jobs are taking share as a percentage of total employment at the fastest rate in over three decades.