US manufacturing jobs rise, but impact of Trump policies remains unclear

The US added 165,000 non-farm jobs in October, including an estimated 19,000 in manufacturing, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Manufacturing employment has risen by 101,000 since a recent low in December 2025.

The White House said the figures showed President Donald Trump’s tariffs and tax cuts were bringing production back to the US. But the monthly jobs report does not measure how many jobs resulted from production moving from abroad, or isolate the effects of those policies.

The increase since December amounts to about 0.8% of manufacturing employment, which stood at roughly 12.7 million in October. The December low is also a different starting point from the beginning of Trump’s current term.

The White House called October the strongest month for manufacturing job growth since 2023. That does not match the revised figures published in the October report: they show a gain of 21,000 manufacturing jobs in August, compared with 19,000 in October. The October estimate is preliminary.

Across the economy, October’s payroll gain was well above the average of 48,000 a month over the previous year. Unemployment changed little at 4.1%. The bureau also revised its overall job-growth estimates upwards for August and September.

The White House said 63% of equipment manufacturers were making capital investments to expand US production, linking to a survey report. In a public summary that links to the same report, the Reshoring Initiative and industrial recruiter Regions Recruiting reported the same percentage among 118 equipment manufacturers. They described plans for spending in 2026 or 2027 to support either reshoring or other domestic expansion, rather than necessarily completed investments.

The survey also found that 36% of those manufacturers had brought production back or were actively engaged in further reshoring.