What Obama Knows About US Workers

And as President Obama said, "when American workers, businesses, and farmers have a fair shot to compete in the global economy, we win. But what happens when a country decides to flout the rules in order to give their own workers or businesses an unfair advantage?

Trade policies between countries are governed in two ways: Either by membership in organizations like the WTO, which has member countries, or through bilateral or regional arrangements, such as free trade agreements,. Free trade agreements add to and strengthen the rules on top of the baseline set by the WTO.

These agreements yield economic benefits by breaking down barriers between countries but also allow for the best value products and services to win — rather than those most favored or most protected by one government. They can prevent countries from singling out a foreign competitor and taxing or regulating them unfairly relative to a domestic company. So, when a country feels that others in the WTO may be disregarding the rules, that country can bring a case before the WTO to resolve.

Independent experts are then selected to examine the matter and deliver findings which all WTO Members have agreed to adopt. To date, there have been more than disputes filed at the WTO in its more than 20 years of existence. Vigilant monitoring and rigorous enforcement of U. The United States has brought 23 complaints to the WTO since — more than any other country -- and we have won every single case that has been decided so far.

President Obama on Enforcing Trade Rules: What You Need to Know

Export figures and industry estimates confirm that these enforcement victories are worth billions of dollars. Here are three examples:. But right now, China is providing trade-distorting farm subsidies, otherwise known as government domestic support, to wheat, rice, and corn producers in excess of the amounts permitted by their commitments. China has set prices for wheat, corn, and rice well above market levels, which leads to overproduction in China and puts American farmers at a competitive disadvantage. China is the second largest export market for U.

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Fourteen out of our 23 complaints at the WTO involve China. Under WTO dispute settlement procedures, we will hold consultations with China with a view to resolving these matters during those consultations. If the United States and China are not able to reach a mutually agreed upon solution, the United States may request the establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel. And because the measure we are challenging appears to provide advantages to Chinese farmers at the expense of farmers all over the world, not just the United States, this may impact other WTO member countries as well.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or the TPP, is a trade agreement with 12 nations that puts in place the highest standards of any trade deal in history. From combatting illegal wildlife trafficking and banning child and forced labor to protecting a free and open internet and simplifying export rules for small businesses, the TPP ensures that our values are reflected in trade policies for the Asia-Pacific.

And make no mistake, the U. In a century defined by an increasingly globalized economy, we cannot let other countries pass us by. If we don't pass this agreement and write the rules, our competitors will set weak rules of the road, threatening American jobs and workers while undermining U.

Read about the TPP. That's not good, and it also happened for many Americans both during and after the recession. In the aftermath of the recession, economists have tried to figure out exactly how many people are voluntarily versus involuntarily out of the labor force. As of , the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that half the decline in the participation rate at that time had come from "long-term trends" like aging — as baby boomers age, that means a large chunk of the population will naturally retire.

But that left half of the decline a result of economic weakness and a slow recovery, in the CBO's estimation. Should the participation rate hold steady or creep upward during a Trump presidency, that could keep the unemployment rate from dropping, as only Americans who are looking for work are counted as "unemployed. Full-time job growth over the course of the Obama presidency has far outstripped part-time job growth, as FiveThirtyEight's Ben Casselman has pointed out. Part-time jobs ticked up in November, but overall, employment growth in recovery has been almost all full-time.

Of course, some of those people working part time want to be working part time, and some don't.

Another bright spot here is that the share of those workers who are involuntarily part time has fallen off. However, that figure is still a fair bit higher than it was prior to the recession and that level was itself, in turn, higher than it was before the prior recession.

Obama: 'Nobody who works full-time should have to live in poverty' | US news | The Guardian

That's one place where there could still be some improvement — there are still about 1 million more of those involuntary part-time workers than there were prior to the recession. Politicians of both parties love to talk about manufacturing. Obama pushed manufacturing initiatives throughout his presidency, and Trump built much of his economic message during the campaign around singing the praises of America's manufacturers.

But when it comes to employment, the goods-producing share of the economy has continued to fall. Throughout the past few decades, the share of Americans who make things — people in manufacturing, mining, logging and construction — has fallen off, and that trend continued during the recent recession, finally flattening out toward the end. We present this chart over a longer time frame, which makes it a little bit of a cheat — this isn't exactly a measure of Obama's "record on jobs.

It's a reminder that all the usual macroeconomic indicators unemployment, wages, labor force participation, GDP can quantify a lot of things in the economy, but you have to dig in to learn about the quality of that economy — what exactly is going on behind those numbers. This decline in goods-producing jobs doesn't signal that the economy is getting worse or better — it's just changing, in this case to become more focused on providing services , instead of goods. All of this is to say that Trump inherits a job market that is humming along comfortably, given how poor of shape it was in only recently.

But it's also an economy that has sharply moved away from manufacturing and other goods-producing industries — the very ones he pushed the most in the election. That change has hurt plenty of Americans, despite the job market's improvement. Trump has tried to claim credit for several hundred goods-producing jobs here and there credit that he doesn't always deserve, as the Washington Post 's Philip Bump has reported , but bringing manufacturing employment back in a sizable way seems like a tall order for any president. Furthermore, alternative work — like driving an Uber or Lyft — continues to grow quickly as a share of the economy.

That change could eventually require policy attention, as more workers take jobs that don't come with benefits. But there's another big caveat here. Presidents get lots of credit and blame for the economy's performance, despite the fact that they don't really have firm control over that performance. If they did, why would recessions ever happen? Yes, a president can push an economic agenda and in some cases push particular policies that end up having a sizable impact on the economy see: But they also need Congress to enact those policies.

Not only that, but the Federal Reserve has its own set of controls — a set to which the president does not have access, despite some conspiracies of politically motivated Fed scale-tipping. So, like Obama, whatever happens to the economy under Trump, he may not deserve whatever credit he may claim and the same goes for whatever blame is thrown his way. Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player.

Slowly, but surely, things have turned around. The job market is strong, but quickly shifting. Facebook Twitter Flipboard Email.