We’ve all heard of the massive trade deficit that the United States has. The US imports more goods from other countries that it sends out and we hear this all the time as being a bad thing. On the whole for the United States it is a bad thing, but it need not necessarily be a bad thing for the local job market. Clearly when we import goods, we trade money for something tangible. As such, the money flows out of the local economy and this in and of itself is a bad thing. By contrast, when we export goods, we gain money in exchange for giving something tangible – a transaction that is deemed to be favorable.

Importing however does create many job opportunities. Consider all that is involved with the importation of goods. You must hire the entire supply chain staff, from the truck drivers that bring the goods to the warehouse to the workers that unload it to the people that process it. All of these jobs are created to handle goods coming into the local economy. In addition, there are jobs created that handle the distribution of goods as well – you need sales people to move those goods, marketing people to create a buzz for them, and customer service reps to handle questions about them. Indeed there are many unique jobs that are created that help the local economy when goods come into it.

However, critiques of importation often argue that such jobs are temporary. Because the cash being spent on the goods is from the local economy, and importation involves sending that money essentially to a destination outside of that economy, people say that such a balance is not sustainable. These people would be correct. One also must look at the bigger picture. We all need certain goods to be imported – no local economy can manufacture every product needed for that economy. And often the importation of those goods enables better products to be exported. Although it may seem like a trivial example, by importing many computer parts from other parts of the world, local economies are able to design software, create ads, balance budgets, and so on. All of which are very productive in the global economy and allow for easier exports. Importing these computer parts also opens up a plethora of different career choices that would never be available if they were not around.

Importing is often the boogey-man for a lot of the woes facing an economy, but it need not be that way. It is a vital part of a healthy economy and can create local jobs in the same way exporting does as well. In many respects the two are similar – importing requires much of the same supply chain logistics that exporting requires as well. Local economies can benefit from having an extremely strong import economy. This is especially true if the goods being imported directly aid in the production of goods to be exported. Indeed, one can easily see that importing is just as important to job creation as exporting does.

Blog by Joseph Marando – Impulse Products