Manufacturing Narrowly Avoids A Second Month of Job Losses: Trade Deficit Narrows

Manufacturing employment in February erased jobs lost in January, but only just. According to the latest Department of Labor jobs report, the manufacturing sector added 15,000 jobs last month after losing 12,000 in January. The report is just the latest sign that manufacturing employment is strangely disconnected from the growth in the rest of the economy, which added 273,000 total nonfarm jobs. Manufacturing jobs producing durable goods accounted for 11,000 of the jobs gained, including 6,800 jobs producing parts for motor vehicles. Nondurable good accounted for the other 4,000 jobs added. The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is still preliminary. Scott Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said it was good to see manufacturing recover from a bad start, but expressed worry about how it was still underperforming relative to the economy at large. Since February 2019, manufacturing has only added 31,000 jobs in an economy that has generated 2.5 million jobs, he said in a statement.