The U.S. Department of Labor has certified that 5,319 Ohio employees at workplaces statewide lost their jobs during the first seven months of this year because of international trade, compared with 13,432 during all of 2006.

Policy Matters Ohio, a research organization which examined the federal statistics, said that is only a minimal estimate of the jobs lost because the statistics are from a program that is limited to the manufacturing sector.

Montgomery County had the highest number of workers certified this year, 1,382, with most of those separated from Delphi Corp.'s automotive air compressors plant in Moraine, Policy Matters Ohio reported from its Columbus office on Monday.

Delphi said this month that it intends to close its Kettering Boulevard plant in Moraine in October, affecting about 275 hourly and 40 salaried employees. The plant's labor union has said Delphi will transfer the plant's work to Mexico. Delphi, an auto parts maker in bankruptcy reorganization, has declined comment.

Policy Matters Ohio based its report on statistics from the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance program that the Labor Department administers. The TAA program provides job search, training, health care and wage insurance benefits to manufacturing-sector workers if the government concludes they lost their jobs due to international trade.

To qualify, workers at a facility which is cutting jobs must send a group application to the Labor Department. If the department certifies the application, the workers may then apply individually for program benefits.

Policy Matters Ohio also reported that:

•Ohio has lost nearly 242,000 manufacturing jobs since July 2000, including more than 34,000 since July 2005.

•In cases involving workers who applied for benefits under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, Ohio companies involved in moving jobs to other countries were most likely to shift production to Mexico.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.