{"id":10504,"date":"2025-07-15T02:01:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T02:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/10504\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T02:01:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T02:01:05","slug":"us-manufacturing-falters-despite-policy-boost-donald-trumps-tariffs-and-bidens-subsidies-fail-to-lift-sector-jobs-output-remain-stuck-in-post-pandemic-rut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/10504\/","title":{"rendered":"US manufacturing falters despite policy boost: Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs and Biden\u2019s subsidies fail to lift sector; jobs, output remain stuck in post-pandemic rut"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"US US manufacturing is showing persistent signs of stagnation despite a policy push from both political sides \u2014 with President Donald Trump deploying steep tariffs and former President Joe Biden previously handing out subsidies \u2014 to shore up domestic industry. Job losses and tepid production data point to a sector still waiting for momentum to return.Factories in the US cut 7,000 jobs in June, according to the Labor Department, marking the second straight month of declines. Manufacturing employment is now set to fall for a third consecutive year. Activity also continued to contract in June, with the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reporting that the sector has shrunk in 30 of the past 32 months since October 2022.The analysis highlights the limited impact of both the Biden-era factory investment boom and the Trump administration\u2019s aggressive tariff regime, reported by AP. \u201cThe past three years have been a real slog for manufacturing,\u201d said Eric Hagopian, CEO of Pilot Precision Products, a Massachusetts-based industrial tools maker. \u201cWe didn\u2019t get destroyed like in 2008, but we\u2019ve been in this stagnant, sort of stationary environment.\u201dThe slowdown has been driven by several factors, including inflationary pressures that spiked following the post-COVID recovery and the Federal Reserve\u2019s sharp interest rate hikes in 2022 and 2023. Though Biden\u2019s clean energy and chip subsidies sparked a surge in factory construction between 2021 and 2024, investments have since slowed after Trump returned to power and Congress reversed many green energy incentives.Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody\u2019s Analytics, warned that \u201cmanufacturing production will continue to flatline,\u201d adding that employment in the sector is likely to shrink further in the coming year.Trump, meanwhile, is pursuing protectionist policies to encourage domestic manufacturing. The administration has imposed tariffs of 50% on steel and aluminum, 25% on autos and parts, and 10% on a range of other imports. While the levies offer some companies a pricing edge, they also raise costs on imported materials essential to US producers.\u201cFor some bids, the tariff helps us stay competitive,\u201d said Chris Zuzick, VP at Waukesha Metal Products in Wisconsin, AP quoted. But steel prices, buoyed by the protectionist policy, have soared \u2014 reaching $960 per metric ton in the US, more than double the $440 world average as of June 23, according to SteelBenchmarker.Despite the high duties, firms like Pilot Precision still source steel from France and Austria \u2014 even after paying tariffs \u2014 because of price and quality dynamics.Further complicating matters is the lack of clarity around policy. Trump has repeatedly delayed and revised tariff schedules, leaving manufacturers in limbo. \u201cCustomers do not want to make commitments in the wake of massive tariff uncertainty,\u201d an ISM survey respondent from the fabricated metal products industry noted. A computer hardware firm added, \u201cThe situation remains too volatile to firmly put such plans into place.\u201dThe recent slowdown may also reflect a reversion to pre-pandemic norms. After losing nearly 1.4 million jobs in early 2020, factories surged during the COVID-driven goods boom, adding 379,000 jobs in 2021 and 357,000 in 2022. But hiring then plateaued in 2023 and has since reversed.As of June, factory payrolls stood at 12.75 million \u2014 almost unchanged from the 12.74 million recorded in February 2020. \u201cIt\u2019s a long, strange trip to get back to where we started,\u201d said Jared Bernstein, chair of Biden\u2019s Council of Economic Advisers.While manufacturers wait for clearer signals from the Trump administration\u2019s upcoming \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill,\u201d many remain cautious. Hagopian is hopeful that targeted tax breaks might help, and Zuzick echoed that it\u2019s too soon to judge the tariff impact: \u201cManufacturing doesn\u2019t turn on a dime.\u201dWith policy flip-flops, cost pressure and weak demand all in play, most factories are keeping hiring and investment plans on hold. \u201cEveryone,\u201d Zuzick said, \u201cis kind of just waiting for the new normal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US manufacturing is showing persistent signs of stagnation despite a policy push from both political sides \u2014 with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[10572,28,101,10571,10570,10569,10568,10573],"class_list":["post-10504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-biden-subsidies-for-factories","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-manufacturing-employment-trends","tag-manufacturing-sector-stagnation","tag-trump-tariffs-impact-on-manufacturing","tag-us-manufacturing-jobs","tag-us-steel-prices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}