Clearly, some workers who have been displaced or have had a difficult time finding work during the past three years can accurately claim to have been made worse off by international competition. Job loss in particular causes significant hardships for affected workers.
For example, an analysis by Henry Farber (2003), using BLS data on workers displaced for any reason, suggests that only about two-thirds of displaced workers found re-employment within three years, with some settling for part-time work. Even when successful in finding full-time work, displaced workers experience on average a decline in earnings on the new job of about 8 percent.