U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Decline Amid Tariffs and Immigration Crackdown

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Manufacturers in the U.S. are cutting jobs even as President Donald Trump pushes policies he says will revitalize the industry. Employers shed 12,000 manufacturing jobs in August, while payrolls in the sector have fallen by 42,000 since April, according to a new analysis from the Center for American Progress (CAP) based on government labor data.

CAP attributes the losses to new tariffs, restrictive immigration policies, and the Republican-backed tax package enacted in July that phases out renewable energy credits. In 2025, U.S. manufacturing employment dropped by 33,000 jobs, largely in durable goods such as cars, appliances, and electronics. Hiring overall slowed as employers added just 22,000 jobs in August, well below forecasts, as part of a decades-long decline.

According to the analysis, manufacturing made up 34% of U.S. employment in 1960, peaking at 19.5 million jobs in 1970. By August, just 12.7 million Americans worked in the sector, which shed 87,000 jobs in 2024.

Tariffs are also creating problems in the industry. “Companies are uncertain about what’s happening,” CAP economist Sara Estrep told CBS Moneywatch. “Everything has been changing on a day-to-day basis, so it’s not clear what production should look like. That’s why they aren’t hiring.”

John Deere cited $300 million in tariff costs, cutting 200 workers, while automakers announced nearly 5,000 job cuts in July.

Immigration enforcement has also hit the labor supply. ICE detained 475 immigrants at a Hyundai plant in Georgia in the first week of September. “If you take away some of their labor supply, that just gives them more incentive to pursue automation,” said economist Daniel Altman, an author of the High Yield Economics newsletter.