Manufacturing is Expanding, but Its Payrolls Aren’t
The economy added 7,000 factory jobs in May 2026. It's not nothing, but it's also not a lot!
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The economy added 7,000 factory jobs last month. It’s not nothing, but it’s also not a lot!
America’s manufacturing employment headcount inched up last month, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Friday. A full 7,000 new factory jobs were created across the country.
Manufacturing Dive has a good breakdown on the specifics of those numbers. Certain industrial sectors (like fabricated metal products) grew a lot, while others (like plastics and rubber products) lost nearly as much. When all is tallied, the result is a modest manufacturing employment gain, a month after the economy added zero such jobs, and two months after it added 15,000 of them to an economy that has roughly 160 million people employed.
So while the country is gaining manufacturing jobs, it’s only incrementally, and it comes after 2025, when the economy instead shed lots of them. So what gives? Many critics would pin the problem on the Trump administration’s tariff policies. During the Biden administration, you will recall, many also blamed tariffs for inflation.
No, the stagnant state of factory employment is more likely to do with uncertainty. Whether it’s tariffs, war with Iran, or high energy costs due to war with Iran, it’s the uncertainty behind it all that’s holding hiring back.
That’s the takeaway, at least, from the monthly reporting done by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), which finds that all facets of U.S. manufacturing are expanding right now! Except for its payrolls.
“When things are uncertain, you don’t invest in capital equipment and you don’t hire people,” said ISM survey chair Susan Spence to Marketplace last week. “Because it’s very costly to hire and train and you don’t want to have to lay off people if your order book goes the wrong way.”
Recent Census Bureau data backs up the ISM survey; new orders for manufactured goods increased in April, a trend repeated in five of the past six months. Manufacturing in America is heading in the right direction – except for all the workers it could be pulling along with it. Here’s hoping for more certainty in the coming weeks.
