Trump's Trade War Squeezes Middle-Class Manufacturing Employment
Despite claims from the Trump administration that the tariffs are going bolster American manufacturing, the latest economic data tell a different story.
Manufacturing employment has been falling since April, and job growth is slower than it was between January 2024 and August 2024. The timing of the manufacturing declines corresponds with the Trump administration’s disastrous tariff policies, which are projected to cost American households $2,400 annually. Since President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement in April 2025, overall manufacturing employment has declined by 42,000, while job openings and hires have fallen by 76,000 and 18,000, respectively. Despite Trump’s claims that his policies will reignite the manufacturing industry in the United States, his policies have achieved the opposite.
Manufacturing businesses are struggling under Trump’s tariffs
In August 2025, the manufacturing sector lost 12,000 jobs, a total loss of 42,000 jobs since April 2025. Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement on April 2 ignited the contraction of the manufacturing sector in 2025.
Since “Liberation Day,” manufacturing firms have slowed their hiring and are creating new positions at rates well below 2024 levels. The falling job opening and hiring rates in the manufacturing sector since the beginning of 2025 reveal that the Trump administration’s policies are harming working-class jobs that are overwhelmingly filled by men, who have been struggling with rising unemployment in recent months.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/trumps-trade-war-squeezes-middle-class-manufacturing-employment/