In February, the U.S. manufacturing industry lost 12,000 jobs, with the plastics and rubber product and transportation equipment sectors leading the way with 4,200 and 4,000 losses, respectively, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics findings. Further, Federal Reserve Economic Data shows the job losses were significantly higher than the same period last year, which showed a loss of only 2,000 jobs comparatively. This also all but eliminates the positive momentum from the 5,000 jobs gained in January.
“This February jobs report was far weaker than I had hoped, particularly after a slight bump up for manufacturing in January,” Scott Paul, Alliance for American Manufacturing’s President, said in a statement. “There are many factors swirling around—[artificial intelligence], bad weather, tariff volatility, and much more. With a potential energy shock on the horizon, there may be even worse news to come.”
On top of the losses in the plastics and rubber products and transportation equipment sectors, wood products lost 2,400 jobs, followed by 2,100 losses in the beverage, tobacco, leather, and allied products sector, and 1,000 jobs in textiles, primary metals, and food sectors. There were some gains, however, with the fabricated metal sector adding 2,100 employees; and the chemical, machinery and electrical equipment and appliance and component sectors adding around 1,000.
The losses represent a 15.6 percent increase to manufacturing unemployment levels with a total of 527,000 workers, compared to 456,000 year over year. With additional tariff and war uncertainty, employment levels too could remain uncertain. S&P Global U.S. manufacturing PMI report indicated that U.S. manufacturers were restraining hiring.
