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The U.S. is losing thousands of manufacturing jobs, analysis finds

Allan

Allan

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As many economists warned Trump's policies are have the exact opposite effect of what he's trying to achieve.

The problem with bleeding manufacturing jobs is that they're not coming back anytime soon, if ever.

Manufacturers in the U.S. are cutting thousands of jobs even as President Trump pushes economic policies that he says will revitalize the industry.

Employers shed 12,000 manufacturing jobs in August, while payrolls in the sector have shrunk by 42,000 since April, according to a new analysis from the Center for American Progress (CAP) that draws on government labor data.
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The nonpartisan policy institute attributes that decline to the Trump administration's steep new tariffs; hardline stance on immigration; and the Republican-backed "big, beautiful bill," a tax and spending package enacted by Mr. Trump in July that CAP says hurts renewable energy companies by phasing out certain tax credits.
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www.cbsnews.com

The U.S. is losing thousands of manufacturing jobs, analysis finds

Uncertainty over U.S. tariffs and other Trump administration economic policies are deterring manufacturers from hiring, according to the Center for American Progress.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com
 
Add this to the recent ICE debacle at the Hyundai battery plant, and soon no one will want to build anything in the US.
 
Yes. This was entirely predictable and easily predicted.

Trump’s trade war of choice is proving to be a disaster. The guy has a strong opinions about many things, most of which her knows very little about.

It was stupid. It was by choice. The trumpers never seem to recognize either.
 
The aluminum tariffs are really hurting manufacturing. Expect additional job losses in that sector too. These are amongst the ost stupid tariffs. The US has no ability to significantly increase their aluminum production for decades even if they started now .

From Google......
"AI Overview

Yes, some aluminum and steel manufacturers are cutting jobs in the U.S. due to the economic impact of tariffs, while others cite sluggish demand and increased costs as reasons for layoffs, with companies like Alcoa and Stellantis reporting staff reductions and production pauses. The tariffs' effects include job losses and production cuts in both the U.S. and Canada, and the broader consequences of these trade actions are a significant concern for industry and labor groups. "
 
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Callen said:
The aluminum tariffs are really hurting manufacturing. Expect additional job losses in that sector too.
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Copper tariffs are also going to harm US manufacturers.

The current US administration has by now targeted a lot of things with tariffs, which are added taxes on goods American companies want to import. That includes aluminum and steel. But copper just might be the metal most essential for a modern economy, and we don't seem to have enough of it.

The billions of smartphones now sold every year rely on it. Demand among carmakers is expected to triple by 2030 as they shift to electric, and it’s a fundamental part of renewable-energy infrastructure. The AI bubble is creating even more appetite; the addition of a single data center needed to train new models can require 27 metric tons of the metal, equivalent to a fully loaded fire truck.
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Callen said:
I see that two new copper mines are on the federal fast track list. Love that Carney is focusing on finding us new trade alliances and developing new opportunities for our incredible wealth of raw materials.
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Although copper mining has big drawbacks as well.
 
Loulit01 said:
Although copper mining has big drawbacks as well.
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My understanding is they are in a fairly remote northern area. I'm confident that environmental concerns will be dealt with as best as can be. One is an expansion of an existing mineral operation.
 
Callen said:
The aluminum tariffs are really hurting manufacturing. Expect additional job losses in that sector too. These are amongst the ost stupid tariffs. The US has no ability to significantly increase their aluminum production for decades even if they started now .
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The aluminum industry says it can increase production by restarting smelters that are currently idle, as well as building new ones within five years. I'm not agreeing with the tariffs per se, but it could be done.

But there is the problem still that nobody knows if the current tariffs will go on a week or a month. Who is going to invest even in restarting a smelter, knowing they'll just end up being shut down again? Tariffs are supposed to be enacted as laws with a definable duration, rather than as passing whims.
 
bythoughts said:
The aluminum industry says it can increase production by restarting smelters that are currently idle, as well as building new ones within five years. I'm not agreeing with the tariffs per se, but it could be done.

But there is the problem still that nobody knows if the current tariffs will go on a week or a month. Who is going to invest even in restarting a smelter, knowing they'll just end up being shut down again? Tariffs are supposed to be enacted as laws with a definable duration, rather than as passing whims.
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The more critical issue is the availability of the elecricity required to run the smelters. When you throw in the electricity required by the AI server farms you simply don't have enough. The cost of electricity will skyrocket.....
 
This from another thread is interesting and germane. This quote is from John Deere.

“Unfortunately, we are beginning to feel the unintended negative consequences of tariffs,” Jon Sanders, director of the Center for Food Power and Life at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “Two years ago, John Deere enjoyed record profits. Now the company is seeing tariff-related spikes in steel and aluminum costs and a steep drop in income, and it has begun layoffs. Normal market ins and outs are hard enough to navigate, but these impacts from policy changes resound throughout the economy. Tariffs are notorious for causing unintended harms on the countries that level them.”
 
As of August this year, 12.7 million Americans were employed in manufacturing, while the industry lost 87,000 jobs in 2024, data shows.
 
BabaVoss said:
The guy has a strong opinions about many things, most of which her knows very little about.
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Name a politician who is any different. Just listen to democrats talk about guns or price controls or the healthcare market.
 
aociswundumho said:
Name a politician who is any different. Just listen to democrats talk about guns or price controls or the healthcare market.
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Trump is VERY different. Ignorant, arrogant, clueless, immoral, unethical, self-serving, deeply dishonest…

Most politicians show *some* of those traits sometimes.
Trump displays all of them, all the time, to an extreme degree.

.
 
Econ4every1 said:
This video talks about why

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The video is spot on.

I lived and worked in China in the 2000s. My two expat colleagues were from Ireland and the US. In discussing China's insane economic growth my position was that they did many things well, but were decades away from catching up to America due to your country's outstanding talent in innovation leadership.

Although accurate at the time that position would be laughable today and my colleagues would have the bartender cut me off.

The solution for America? Well as the video points out it's not tariffs. Obviously a very focused national strategy is a must but the current administration doesn't have the smarts to do that.

Without that the day may come where America not only doesn't build cars, but doesn't even design them. Extrapolated across all industries.
 
Speaking of China they're putting a lot of these on the road.

 
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