Hiring in the manufacturing industry continues to trend up, adding 19,000 jobs in October, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday.
Compared to the same time last year, it’s a 311% increase, when there were 9,000 job cuts.
Meanwhile, adjusted data showed 13,000 jobs were added in September. The BLS initially reported 9,000 jobs were added. And August’s numbers were adjusted again, now showing 21,000 jobs were added, a 40% increase from the agency’s first revision of 15,000 jobs. The BLS initially reported August added 16,000 jobs.
“The strength of factory job growth gives the new Democratic majority in Congress and President Trump an important opportunity to work together next year: Rebuild our manufacturing base,” Scott Paul, president of Alliance for American Manufacturing, said in a statement.
In general, 165,000 jobs were added across all U.S. industries in October, the BLS reported.
“The U.S. labor market is reaccelerating,” Andrew Flowers, chief economist at Appcast, said in an emailed statement. “The October jobs report beat expectations by a massive margin: adding 165,000 jobs, about 100,000 above the consensus forecast. On the heels of the blowout midterm election results, we'll cheekily call this the second ‘tsunami’ of the week.”
Manufacturing unemployment claims reached 413,000 laborers in October. However, BLS did not disclose October 2025’s unemployment claims data.
“While the unemployment rate declined slightly to 4.1%, there is some area of concern that those without work are finding it difficult to land a job,” Flowers said. “The typical weeks unemployed is up to 11.9, the highest since 2014.”
Monthly job additions and losses from January 2025 to October 2026
The employment index remained in expansion in October at 52.4%, a slight drop of 0.3 percentage points from September, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s latest Purchasing Managers’ Index released Monday. An employment index registering above 50.3% over time is generally consistent with an increase in BLS manufacturing employment data, per the ISM.
Additionally, the positive-to-negative comments ratio on employment was 1.8-to-1 in October, Susan Spence, chair of ISM’s Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said in the PMI report.
While the PMI expanded for the tenth consecutive month in October at 55.5%, the manufacturing industry is “sensitive to the loss of growth, employment, and the backlog drop, as well as the continued pricing volatility despite the index coming down slightly this month,” Susan Spence, chair of ISM’s Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said during media call on Monday.
“It’s really all about the inflationary pressures and the constraint in availability of raw materials, made worse by the ongoing Iran war and the tariff trade wars,” Spence said.
The computer and electronic product manufacturing sectors added the most jobs in October with 6,700, followed by machinery with 3,900, transportation equipment with 3,800 and primary metal with 3,700.
The four sectors fall under the durable goods industry, which Paul said is benefitting from the steel and China tariffs.
“It should also serve as a reminder to Congress that there would be downsides in stripping away all of the tariffs now in place,” Paul said. “We will urge on bipartisan efforts to invest in infrastructure, jumpstart our shipbuilding capacity, and defend critical industries against unfair trade practices by enacting trade law improvements.”
Manufacturing sectors that added or lost jobs in October 2026
September job openings, layoffs, turnovers and separations
September job openings in the manufacturing industry increased over 50% to 584,000 compared with the same period last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job openings and labor turnover survey data released Nov. 3.
Separations increased by about 3.3% year over year to 310,000. According to the BLS, there were 199,000 quits and 99,000 layoffs and discharges. Other separations, which factor in retirement, death, disability and transfers within a company, remained flat at 20,000.
