WASHINGTON — US manufacturing jobs fell again in December, marking an eighth straight monthly decline that clashes with President Donald Trump’s pledge of a factory renaissance, newly released federal data show. Analysts and manufacturers point to softer demand and uncertainty around tariff-driven trade policy as reasons factories are cutting headcount and hours, Jan. 9, 2026.
US manufacturing jobs: what the latest BLS report shows
In its December Employment Situation report, the Labor Department said, “Both total nonfarm payroll employment (+50,000) and the unemployment rate (4.4 percent) changed little in December.”
Job growth has narrowed. Food services and drinking places added 27,000 jobs and health care gained 21,000, while retail trade lost 25,000, the report said.
For 2025 as a whole, payrolls rose by 584,000 — an average gain of 49,000 a month — far slower than 2024’s 2 million increase, according to the BLS.
Inside the data, manufacturing payrolls slipped by 8,000 to 12.692 million workers in December. Over the past year, US manufacturing jobs are down 68,000, a 0.5% decline, and the sector is down 44,000 over the past six months, according to the BLS industry-by-industry employment table.
Hours also softened: the average manufacturing workweek edged down to 39.9 hours, while overtime held at 2.9 hours, suggesting some firms are trimming schedules before resorting to layoffs.
Tariffs, investment promises and the gap between rhetoric and payrolls
The administration says tariffs and reshoring pressure are already producing results. A White House post in October pointed to corporate announcements and new projects as evidence of an “American manufacturing boom” — language meant to reassure workers that US manufacturing jobs will expand as new facilities come online.
Yet month-to-month payroll reports can move before big capital projects translate into steady hiring. A Reuters analysis of BLS data found factory employment has declined for eight consecutive months, leaving US manufacturing jobs more than 70,000 lower than in April 2025 and at their weakest level since early 2022. Reuters also reported tariff collections running about $30 billion a month, raising questions about whether the policy is boosting jobs as quickly as it is boosting revenue.
The slide also fits a longer pattern of starts and stalls. In early 2023, US manufacturing jobs climbed to roughly 13 million — the highest level since 2008 — as post-pandemic demand and federal incentives boosted domestic output, Reuters reported at the time.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump promoted a “manufacturing renaissance” built around tax breaks and steep tariffs, as Politico wrote after a Savannah, Ga., rally. But evidence from the first round of tariffs was mixed: a 2024 Econofact review cited Federal Reserve findings that tariff-related cost increases and retaliation outweighed gains for protected industries.
For now, the key question is whether US manufacturing jobs stabilize as 2026 begins, or whether weakness in factory payrolls becomes part of a broader hiring slowdown. The BLS said its next report, covering January, is due Feb. 6 and will include annual benchmark revisions that can reshape recent job totals.
