With all the talk of tariffs, reshoring and “Made in USA”, we thought we would have a look at 2025 trends in US manufacturing employment. One might think that manufacturing employment would be on the increase with these policies.
Manufacturing Employment Data
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, manufacturing employment has actually dropped from about 12.76 million to 12.71 million so far in 2025. That is a reduction of 50,000 jobs.
Why has Manufacturing Employment Dropped?
With all the pro-manufacturing policies, why has employment dropped? A few possibilities are:
- Higher interest rates have increased borrowing costs and lowered demand for manufactured goods.
- Volatility in tariff and trade policies have reduced immediate investment in buildings, equipment and other manufactured products.
- Trends towards using robotics and automation instead of people for manufacturing.
- Lack of a qualified workforce to fill manufacturing roles. The US has been losing manufacturing jobs and knowledge since NAFTA. NAFTA (North American Free
Trade Agreement) went in to effect around 1994.
About C&C Machine
We are a precision CNC machine shop in Oklahoma. Our business and employment levels are steady in 2025.
