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The U.S. trade deficit expanded 3.1 percent in May from the month before, totaling $71.2 billion, the U.S. commerce department reported.
The country imported 1.3 percent more, totaling $277.3 billion, and exported just 0.6 percent more, worth $206 billion.
The U.S. brought in more crude oil, lumber, and other industrial raw materials, and also more food and beverages; exports lagged as politicians in foreign lands shut down some geographic regions as COVID infections have recurred.
The deficit shrank in April when supply-chain disruptions pinched harder but the logistics jam eased somewhat in May.
TREND FORECAST: With manufacturing accounting for just 10.8 percent of America’s Gross Domestic Product, the nation’s trade deficit will remain wide. In 1989, before NAFTA and bringing China into the World Trade organization, some 18 million Americans were employed in the manufacturing sector. Since then, nearly 6 million jobs have been lost in that sector.
And the new jobs being created are in the lower paying box store, fast food, restaurant/hospitality service sectors. Thus, there will be a continuing decline of America’s middle class, which will in turn result in fewer people buying homes and an increase in home and apartment rentals.