U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Plummet Since Liberation Day

Well, that was bleak. 

2025 was officially the worst year for hiring since 2020, with just 584,000 jobs created during the entire year, according to December 2025 job figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released Friday. That’s far below the more than 2 million jobs added in both 2024 and 2023, and the more than 4 million jobs created in 2022.

The manufacturing industry might have taken the biggest hit, with U.S. manufacturers shedding about 8,000 jobs in December. The sector has been losing jobs since April’s “Liberation Day,” when President Donald Trump’s onslaught of tariffs began.

While the final tangible effects of the tariffs have not yet fully settled in, the tariffs have threatened higher costs on raw materials — such as steel and aluminum — and raised production costs significantly for U.S. manufacturers, leading to a loss in manufacturing jobs.

“Tough conditions continue: depressed business activity, some seasonal but largely impacted by customer issues due to interest rates, tariffs, low oil commodity pricing and limited housing starts,” an anonymous manufacturing employee said in the December 2025 institute for Supply Management report. 

The drop in manufacturing jobs is also a continuation of a trend that began in 2023, according to The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. has seen about 200,000 manufacturing jobs vanish since that time. 

In addition, the retail industry shed about 25,000 jobs in December, while the unemployment rate dipped ever so slightly to 4.4 percent from 4.5 percent in November. Retailers have also been negatively affected by Trump’s tariffs, having to jack up their prices as import costs skyrocket.

For the U.S. economy overall, only 50,000 jobs were added in December 2025, according to the BLS. Government employment largely contributed to the decrease in new jobs, as tens of thousands of federal employees lost their jobs this past fall.

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.