• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

(Reuters) US manufacturing extends slump; factory employment lowest in 5 years

Chomsky

Social Democrat
DP Veteran
Joined
Apr 28, 2015
Messages
104,115
Reaction score
94,760
Location
Third Coast
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Liberal

US manufacturing extends slump; factory employment lowest in 5 years

U.S. manufacturing contracted for a fifth straight month in July and factory employment dropped to the lowest level in five years amid tariffs that have raised prices of imported raw materials.
www.reuters.com
--
U.S. manufacturing contracted for a fifth straight month in July and factory employment dropped to the lowest level in five years amid tariffs that have raised prices of imported raw materials.
Click to expand...
Government data on Thursday showed goods prices increased in June by the most in five months, with economists saying this was the start of a tariff-driven rise in goods inflation that they expected to persist through the second half of the year.
Click to expand...
--
Something I've been following as of late, that seemed to not get any play in yesterday's jobs report, is the persistent slump in U.S. manufacturing employment since FEB. We've been steadily shedding manufacturing jobs for much of the year. But the pace appears to have greatly accelerated in APR, and is continuing it's steep downward trajectory currently.

In addition, the fall in manufacturing employment has been accompanied by a rise in the price of manufactured goods.

The OP article attributes both of these effects directly to Trump's tariffs raising the prices of raw manufacturing material.

Ironically, the current real-world results of Trump's tariffs seem be the diametric opposite of what he claimed. We are losing manufacturing jobs, and for this privilege we get to pay higher prices for goods.
 
Well, counter tariffs don't actually cancel out.

And there are penalties for pissing the whole world off on a whim.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
It makes little (no?) sense to have higher tariffs on imported raw materials than on imported finished products which contain them.
Click to expand...

It's what happens when you do lazy "blanket policies", rather than put the effort in to properly analyze and target one's actions.

I suspect Trump is tariffing raw materials in the belief he will stimulate domestic production of raw materials.
 
Chomsky said:
Additional reference data from BLS/FRED:

View attachment 67582902
Click to expand...
We can't trust Fed data, remember? Now that we'll have a MAGAcolyte in the commissioner role there, expect revised data to cite which will surely not look like this gloomy report. Expect the next BLS report to look like this:


 
Luce said:
Too bad the reality will get worse.
Click to expand...

Given the data we're currently seeing, I believe yours is a safe bet.

Unfortunately, we only know it will get worse. We don't know how worse.
 

Yeah, I'm sure it's going going all be revised.

No idea what that will do to the markets.
 
How would anyone conclude that raising the TAX (tariffs) on manufacturing equating to an increase in manufacturing jobs? It would seem that in spite of major manufacturer’s warning of the consequences of more TAX; the idiot in charge went “damn the torpedos”. Let’s give it a shot anyway.
 
Oh no, who is Trump going to fire now because the numbers are bad?

lol

His last Trade War cost us manufacturing jobs, there's no reason to believe it would be any different this time. Except MAGA commies will always make lies and disinformation for Dear Leader.
 
Chomsky said:
It's what happens when you do lazy "blanket policies", rather than put the effort in to properly analyze and target one's actions.

I suspect Trump is tariffing raw materials in the belief he will stimulate domestic production of raw materials.
Click to expand...
Didn’t Trump ok the Nippon Steel purchase?

As a side-bar, is US produced Nippon Steel considered a domestic product?
 
Rexedgar said:
Didn’t Trump ok the Nippon Steel purchase?

As a side-bar, is US produced Nippon Steel considered a domestic product?
Click to expand...

I would guess with the new BLS head, Nippon will be a domestic product and the recent bad jobs numbers across all categories will be revised upward.

Once the new head is in, the data will show a manufacturing renaissance.
 
Brusan said:
How would anyone conclude that raising the TAX (tariffs) on manufacturing equating to an increase in manufacturing jobs? It would seem that in spite of major manufacturer’s warning of the consequences of more TAX;
Click to expand...
Brusan said:
the idiot in charge went “damn the torpedos”. Let’s give it a shot anyway.
Click to expand...

The bolded is most likely what happened.

But economies and supply chains are slow moving behemoths. Up to this point Trump manipulated the financial markets with his "try it and see, reverse it if bad" methodology. However as time goes on, he may hit a cliff that cannot easily & quickly be reversed. Markets change on a dime. Economies, supply chains, and capital investment, do not.

As an example - the recent job numbers might indicate the hysteresis in these systems, as hiring, and capital investment seem to be frozen due to uncertainty.

Unfortunately the new BLS head will make BLS data superfluous, so this month's is possibly the last good data we'll have.
 

Who is Trump going to fire over these numbers?
 
Roadvirus said:
Who is Trump going to fire over these numbers?
Click to expand...

The numbers in my OP Article were extrapolated from yesterday's Jobs Report and prior months' BLS data.

So Trump already took care of it.
 
Lycanthrope said:
"Job growth at a rate America has never seen! 1000, 900, 750, 1400, 550%!!!"
Click to expand...

We can joke, but yeah - that's what's going to happen.

Of course economies don't lie, and I fear not having data to course correct may lead us to a cliff that cannot easily be rectified. Then, we pay the price for our negligence.
 
Hey 2024 Trump voters, you should have voted for the lady whose laugh that you didn’t like. None of this would be happening.
 
While, I don't like Trump. The majority of factory jobs were moving overseas without Trump needing to make a decision. Robots and other industrial robots are making it cheaper than ever to be overseas. And, those Americans still employed in manufacturing are going to be competing against robots-which have shown they are already able to do the job for cheaper than a human. Trump just accelerated something that was bound to have happened.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…