The manufacturing sector continued to shed jobs in October, bringing its tally of job losses to 78,000 over the past three months.
The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday released its jobs report for October, which found that the manufacturing sector lost 46,000 jobs last month, according to the agency’s preliminary analysis.
That followed a loss of 6,000 jobs in September, which is also a preliminary figure, as well as a decline of 26,000 jobs in August.
Manufacturing’s job losses in September included a decline of 44,000 in the transportation equipment manufacturing industry due to strike activity. That can be partially attributed to the ongoing strike by roughly 33,000 unionized machinists at Boeing.
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The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) began its strike on Sept. 13 and has previously rejected Boeing’s new contract offers amid the impasse, though the company extended a fresh offer to the union late Thursday that is under consideration.
The Boeing strike has also rippled through the aerospace giant’s supply chain, causing some of its suppliers like Spirit Aero to temporarily furlough workers while the labor disruption impacts operations.
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A smaller strike by 5,000 IAM machinists at aviation and aerospace contractor Textron also depressed the manufacturing sector’s employment figures. The Textron strike began on Sept. 23 and concluded on Oct. 21, meaning it also weighed on the manufacturing sector’s employment figures.
The manufacturing sector has struggled with job creation over the past year and is down 85,000 jobs, or 0.7%, in the past six months and 50,000 jobs, or 0.4%, in the last 12 months.
The sector’s best job creation month in the past 12 months was a gain of 25,000 jobs in Nov. 2023, which was followed by an increase of 12,000 jobs the following month in December.
In 2024, the manufacturing sector’s last monthly jobs gain occurred in July, when it grew by 6,000 jobs. Its largest monthly gain this year was in April when 7,000 jobs were added.
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The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has called for the next administration and Congress to restore tax incentives for capital investments in expanding or upgrading facilities and equipment, as well as easing regulations that can be costly to implement.
NAM has also called for lawmakers to provide the industry with certainty by averting a “tax armageddon” next year that’s due to occur when a number of provisions in the 2017 tax law known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are due to expire.
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“There is a lot of talk right now from both sides of the aisle, quite frankly, about the possibility of raising taxes on manufacturers, taxes on businesses,” NAM CEO Jay Timmons told FOX Business this summer. “That’s not going to help us. You know, that’s not going to help us grow. That is not going to help our economy grow. And it’s certainly not going to help our leadership.”
FOX Business’ Edward Lawrence contributed to this report.
