Job loss claims are a myth.

• Position: Employment

Is the U.S. exporting its best jobs overseas? Many people believe so. Manufacturing positions are fleeing to China, they say, and service-sector employment is being "offshored" to India. However, the doomsayers have it all wrong, argues Brink Lindsey, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies, Washington, D.C. In "Job Losses and Trade: A Reality Check," he combats the current job-loss hysteria with a broad array of facts and figures:

Job losses are normal. From 1993-2002, total U.S. employment grew by 17,800,000. Yet, during that decade, 310,000,000 jobs were eliminated--and replaced with 328,000,000 new jobs. Job losses are an inescapable part of a dynamic market economy.

"Deindustrialization" is a myth. While manufacturing's share of gross domestic product has been declining, the primary cause is the superior productivity of U.S. manufacturers. Output per hour in the overall U.S. nonfarm business sector rose 50% between 1980 and 2002; by contrast, manufacturing output per hour shot up 103%. Meanwhile, total output has climbed 93% between 1960 and 2003.

The recent drop in manufacturing employment was not due to imports. Between 2000 and 2003, manufacturing employment fell by nearly 2,800,000. Over the same period, though, manufactured imports rose a mere 0.6%.

Offshoring helps to boost productivity and economic growth. The offshoring of computer-related manufacturing jobs has accounted for 10-30% of the drop in hardware prices, according to Catherine Mann at the Institute for International...