Manufacturing breaks job-loss streak, adds 5,000 jobs in January

The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics figures on manufacturing job statistics show mixed growth in January manufacturing across durable and nondurable goods industries. All together, U.S. manufacturers added a total of roughly 5,000 jobs in January as durable-goods companies hired 9,000 and nondurable-goods companies shed 4,000 workers. This happened while the overall economy grew by 130,000 jobs and manufacturing-adjacent sectors in mining and logging lost about 2,000 jobs and trade and transportation lost 9,000.

Despite the small figures, it’s a positive sign for manufacturing, as the preliminary figures for January show manufacturing has broken a 13-month streak of job losses. Manufacturing employment is still 80,000 jobs smaller than it was in January 2024.

The large transportation equipment manufacturing group led the pack in manufacturing job creation with about 4,800 new jobs by itself, of which roughly 900 were in the automotive sector. Smaller durable-goods gains in nonmetallic mineral and electronics products were offset by losses in semiconductor and furniture manufacturing. In nondurable goods, paper manufacturing marked 1,100 new jobs but was more than offset by larger losses of 1,800 employees each in apparel and chemicals manufacturing.

In a LinkedIn post, National Association of Manufacturers Victoria Bloom noted the that revisions to 2025 data shows that the manufacturing slump was worse than initially reported due to adjustments across the nonfarm economy. In Washington, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer noted an increase in construction and specialty trades tied to factory construction. And

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“Manufacturing employment increased by 5,000 in January after 13 consecutive months of declines, following news from last week that manufacturing activity expanded for the first time in January after 10 consecutive months of contraction. Nonetheless, manufacturing employment is still down by more than 80,000 over the year,” Victoria Pryor Bloom, Chief Economist at the National Association of Manufacturers wrote on LinkedIn. “Meanwhile, the BLS issued its annual benchmark revision to its establishment survey. As a result, the employment levels from April 2024 to March 2025 were revised downward by 898,000 nonfarm jobs and 98,000 manufacturing jobs. This large downward revision didn’t come as surprise but shows the labor market was even weaker in 2025 than earlier estimates suggested.”

“The January jobs report shows that the U.S. economy is off to an undeniably strong start this year, with 172,000 private sector jobs added,” said Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer. “Solid growth in construction is proof that President Trump’s America First policies are working their magic, including a notable 25,000 uptick in specialty trades from factory groundbreakings – a direct result of the trillions in historic investments the President has secured.