The Institute for Supply Management released the results on Monday of its most recent survey of the manufacturing industry, revealing a loss of jobs for the ninth month in a row.
The trend under President Donald Trump reverses years of manufacturing growth under former President Joe Biden, and experts are blaming Trump’s embrace of increased tariffs for the contraction.
“The manufacturing sector is sick,” Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, told Reuters.
The job losses echo Trump’s weak record on job creation during his first term in the White House. Trump was the first American president since statistics on jobs have been collected to have a net job loss during his term. There were 2.7 million fewer jobs when Trump left office in January 2021, and about 178,000 of those were in manufacturing.
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By contrast, Biden oversaw the restoration of the manufacturing sector during his four years in office. When he left office in January the 12.9-million worker strong manufacturing industry had been restored to pre-pandemic levels, only to see losses return under Trump.
Economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research told Newsweek that Trump’s tariffs are the crux of the problem.
“Companies are reluctant to invest in a context where they have no idea what tariffs will be in place six months from now, much less three to five years from now,” Baker said. He also noted that demand for products is down because tariff costs reduce consumers’ spending money.
The president’s executive actions have also hurt manufacturing. Trump has targeted green energy programs for elimination and defunding, but these were areas of growth for manufacturing. Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which funded manufacturing projects in the clean energy sector and contributed to job growth.
The Democratic Party lambasted Trump’s failure on manufacturing jobs in a statement.
“Trump has no real plans to deliver for working families,” DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer said. “He sold them out to line the pockets of his ultrawealthy friends, bail out foreign countries, and build his $350 million gold ballroom.”
Republicans have already paid a price for Trump’s weakened economy.
Democratic candidates like New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger defeated Republicans while campaigning on promises to address affordability as prices increase. Republicans like Trump have given lip service to dealing with these concerns but have not offered solutions, a stance in line with the right’s history of inaction on the topic.
When he first took office in 2017, Trump inherited an economy in recovery following the leadership of former President Barack Obama. The country’s fortunes were reversed under Trump, only to see a turnaround under Biden once he took office in 2021.
Now Trump is on a trajectory to repeat his past failures after promising to fix all of the country’s ills on Day 1.
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