So Much For The Manufacturing Employment Renaissance

Preliminary BLS benchmark revisions reveal a sharp decline in manufacturing employment, stalling the sector's recovery narrative.

Source: DepositPhotos

Preliminary benchmark revision based on QCEW data, released today:

Figure 1: Change in manufacturing employment since 2025M01 from BLS (blue), preliminary benchmark revision from BLS (light blue square), from ADP (green). Orange shading denotes post-Liberation Day period. Source: BLS, ADP via FRED, BLS, and author’s calculations.


Here’s the picture for private nonfarm payroll employment:

Figure 2: Change in private nonfarm payroll employment since 2025M01 from BLS (blue), Bloomberg consensus (blue +), preliminary benchmark revision from BLS (light blue square), from ADP (green). Orange shading denotes post-Liberation Day period. Source: BLS, ADP via FRED, BLS, Bloomberg 8/28, and author’s calculations.

Goldman Sachs argues that the downward revision will likely be reduced in the final benchmark.

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