Manufacturing employment has fallen every month since April 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via the Federal Reserve. The total loss of these jobs since April now stands at 72,000, and this figure is expected to continue to grow. But it was in April that President Donald Trump announced that under his new tariffs, “Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country.” April 2 was his “Liberation Day,” when he imposed these sweeping tariffs under Executive Order 14257.
These protective tariffs may have helped a few industries, such as steel, but most manufacturing has been handicapped. Many economists explain that this is because about half of U.S. imports are not consumer goods, but “intermediate” or raw materials used in manufacturing. Especially troubling for small and medium-sized businesses are the endless swings in the tariff rates. Smaller companies have responded to this uncertainty by delaying expansion plans or investments in new equipment. In a November survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 57% of medium-sized manufacturers said that they were uncertain about input costs that month.
Advanced manufacturing items such as aircraft or semiconductors are being hit the hardest by these tariffs—these industries need imported materials. Despite the construction boom in data centers and AI, however, Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, told the Washington Post, “The manufacturing job losses that we see now are really just the beginning of what will be a pretty grim couple of quarters….”
