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The Conversation USA

State Department layoffs could hurt US companies’ ability to compete globally – an economist explains why

  • Written by Carey Durkin Treado, Associate Teaching Professor of Economics, University of Pittsburgh

When more than 1,300 people at the U.S. State Department lost their jobs in a mass firing this summer, most headlines focused on what it meant for American diplomacy. But the layoffs are about more than embassies and foreign policy – they could also make it harder for U.S. companies to compete in global markets.

The July layoffs – part...

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