Walmart has been accused by the Economic Policy Institute of causing about 400,000 American workers to lose their jobs in the span of 12 years - from 2001 to 2013. EPI stated that this claim is not mere speculation but a result of study which they conducted.
Walmart eliminated numerous jobs after selling too much import goods from China and contributing heavily to the U.S. trade deficit with the said country, the study revealed. Also, the review shows that from 2001 to 2013, the retail store contributed 15% of the over-all deficit in US - China trade.
Moreover, EPI labeled the result of their study as "the Walmart effect" which refers to the store's increasing trade deficiency with China. To better explain, the non-profit think tank relayed that as Walmart has been importing more cheaper products than it sells to China, this practice may be associated to job loss in the US, in the last decade. 75% of the jobs lost were manufacturing job positions.
EPI further chewed out the retailing giant for its alleged support to labor rights abuse of China. It said that Walmart is also tolerating the Chinese's violation of fair trade by opening lines that will allow the distribution of cheap Chinese goods.
IBTimes reported that as the retail company caught wind of the EPI's report, it strikes back by labeling the study as "flawed economic analysis that assumes that imports equal job losses and does not take into consideration that countless jobs are added through the global supply chain, distribution and logistics, among other areas of the business."
The management also stated that contrary to claims, their company actually generated more jobs in many core areas of the business like the logistics and supply chain. To further refute the outcome of the analysis, the firm cited the study of Boston Consulting group where it predicted that by the year 2023, Walmart would have created, more or less, one million jobs.
Forbes seems to side with Walmart by directly firmly stating that there's no truth in the claims that the store's imports from China caused massive job loss in America.
It pointed out that trade does not have an effect on the state of employment in any country. The only thing that trade can do is modify which jobs are being done in a particular region.
The author of the article, Tim Worstoll, added "I'm afraid that simply isn't true. The number of jobs in the US is determined by the combination of Congress and whatever fiscal policy they decide to adopt plus the Federal Reserve and whatever monetary policy they decide to adopt. Who imports what from where simply doesn't make any difference at all to this."
In any case, to put an end to this issue, it is obvious that Walmart must make a stand to disprove the accusations hurled against them as a result of EMI's study.
