U.S. exports are being hurt by the trade war with China and not only farmers are bearing the brunt, fresh data from the U.S. Commerce Department shows.

More than 30 U.S. states suffered double-digit drops in merchandise exports to China through September this year. Exports to China from the U.S. as a whole dropped 15 percent to 78.8 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of 2019.

In Texas, which exports oil and natural gas, sales to the Asian nation fell 39 percent.

Total shipments to China plunged 49 percent in Alabama in the same period, while Florida's merchandise sales slumped 40 percent. West Virginia and Wisconsin each saw drops of about 25 percent.

California, as the second largest state exporter to China, fared better than other states, but still saw its outbound shipments drop eight percent.

Exports to China support more than a million U.S. jobs, according to the U.S.-China Business Council, a nonprofit organization of approximately 200 American companies that do business with China.

"Chinese demand for imports overall has been weak," Bloomberg quoted Brad Setser, senior fellow for international economics on the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit think tank, as saying. The content of the trade deal will decide how long it will take for U.S. exports to rebound.

"In some cases, U.S. exports will never recover," he noted.