(What’s Left of) Our Economy: Trump’s Manufacturing Jobs Record Survives Even Poor Official Revisions

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) just provided more evidence of how much better the tariff heavy second Trump administration’s manufacturing jobs record has been than that of the Joe Biden’s presidency – even though some of the Trump shine was rubbed off.

The evidence came in the form of BLS’ new preliminary benchmark revision for U.S. job creation from March, 2025 through this past March.     

As is sometimes the case, this update showed that fewer total American jobs were added during that year-long period than previously estimated – and that includes employment in manufacturing, which is now judged to have been 67,000 lower.

As a result, so far during the 17 data months of Trump 2.0 (starting in February, 2025, the president’s first full month back in office), rather than having shed 60,000 jobs, industry’s job loss is now pegged at 127,000.  

But that downgrade still leaves the current Trump administration’s performance superior to that of its predecessor – which of course relied much less on tariffs to revive domestic manufacturing than Mr. Trump.  For during the Biden administration’s final 17 months, U.S.-based manufacturing’s payrolls fell by 188,000 – nearly 50 percent more than the Trump figure.

Moreover, the preliminary benchmark revision leaves unchanged the manufacturing jobs picture after this past March.  And since then, it’s improved by 14,000.  

The final manufacturing job totals for the year ending this past March won’t be published until this coming February.  If they’re like those from the previous year, they won’t be terribly different.  In fact, the previous final benchmark revision raised the preliminary’s assessment of manufacturing job loss only from 95,000 to 98,000.

The latest revisions certainly don’t scream “manufacturing jobs renaissance!”  But they do make clear that the rate of bleeding has slowed substantially under Trump 2.0 – which should be as significant economically as it is medically.  And the increase since this past March could signal that stronger signs of manufacturing life lie ahead, along with yet more evidence that tariffs have played an important role.