Facing pressure from Chinese competition, Tubbs, a snowshoe manufacturing company founded in Maine in 1906, is relocating its business to China. Outsourcing to China has become an increasingly familiar story in New England. Five of the top ten states losing jobs to China, as a percentage of the total workforce, are in New England - Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont - according to a study of job losses between 1989 and 2003 by the Economic Policy Institute. The report said that 1.42 million US jobs were lost to China during that time period and as a percent of the state's workforce, Maine was the top loser in New England, with 2.47 percent of its jobs going to China. No state reported a net gain in jobs due to China trade.
See "Founded in N.E., exported to China", Michael Kranish, The Boston Globe, February 16, 2005