PORTLAND – Maine led the nation when it came to hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs from July 2000 to August 2003, according to a report from the National Association of Manufacturers.

Maine’s loss of 17,800 jobs represents a nation-leading 22.1 percent decline in jobs among states in the manufacturing sector, the association said. New Hampshire was close behind at 20.8 percent.

Economists blamed Maine’s woes on an older manufacturing base, as well as mergers that moved corporate ownership out of state.

Though Maine lost proportionally more manufacturing jobs, the nation as a whole experienced the same trend of losing production positions as companies tried to weather the economic downturn by cutting payroll.

Overall, the United States lost 2.73 million manufacturing jobs during the same period, a 15.8 percent loss, said the association, which gets its numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In total numbers, Maine’s job loss is insignificant when compared to the high job cuts in some other states.

California lost the most manufacturing positions over the past two years, at 291,600 jobs cut, and Rust Belt states like Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania all dropped jobs in the 140,000-plus area.

In Maine, losses in traditional industries like paper, leather and wood products have been particularly heavy.

“We’ve got a few mature industries in Maine that our economy’s really heavily reliant on that have been hit particularly hard, not only by the downturn of the economy, but by increased pressures from overseas,” said Adam Fisher, spokesman for the Maine Department of Labor.

According to Fisher, the number of manufacturing jobs dropped from 12,900 in 2000 to the current level of 9,500, a loss of 3,400 jobs; leather and allied product jobs dropped from 5,200 to 2,600, a loss of 2,600 jobs; and wood products jobs dropped from 7,900 to 6,200, a loss of 1,700 jobs.

Michael Hillard, professor of economics at the University of Southern Maine, said the numbers don’t come as a surprise.

“If you think about where Maine is in the country, it’s one of the places where the [American] Industrial Revolution started,” said Hillard. “By matter of history, we have an older industrial base than in other parts of the country.”

The trend of moving operations offshore is increasing in frequency and activity, said Hillard. And the nation is not just losing laborers, it’s also losing the research and development and back office support, he said.

“We may be getting to the point of losing enough of our manufacturing base that we may be vulnerable in complex ways over the next 50 years that we can’t foresee now,” he said. “We may be losing the capacity to be the world leader.”