The manufacturing industry saw 329,000 job separations in October, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ openings and labor turnover survey results released on Tuesday.
That’s about a 0.6% increase compared to September’s separations, which saw about 327,000. Separations include quits, layoffs and discharges, according to the BLS.
Despite the subsequent uptick, separations improved compared to the same period last year, when there were 332,000.
Meanwhile, job openings have jumped about 6.5% month over month to 410,000, but have dropped year over year to about 10% from 455,000.
Hires dropped month-to-month 4.4% to 306,000 compared to September’s 320,000, and also fell YoY.
The BLS’ latest data includes September’s results, which were not previously published due to the federal government shutdown and lapse of appropriations. The agency also delayed publishing September’s employment situation report to Nov. 20.
Manufacturing unemployment jumped 18.7% YoY to 571,000 individuals and job losses accounted for 6,000 in September.
Sector-specific trends’
Looking at specific sectors, beverage, tobacco, and leather and allied product manufacturing gained the most jobs, with about 3,300. Nonmetallic mineral products and machinery also gained employees, at 1,500 and 1,300, respectively.
Some of the hardest-hit sectors saw thousands of job cuts, particularly in the plastics and rubber products sector, which lost approximately 3,500 jobs.
Semiconductor and other electronic components lost about 2,500 workers. Transportation equipment cut 2,400 employees, with half of those from the motor vehicle, body, trailer and parts segment.
And the job cuts in the transportation equipment sector are expected to continue into 2026 due to slowing electric vehicle sales, rising costs and tariffs on materials such as aluminum and steel. General Motors is laying off thousands of workers at its U.S. facilities as well as pausing production at its Ultium Cells battery sites in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and Warren, Ohio, all beginning in January.
The tariffs are having the opposite effect on incentivizing manufacturers to bring production back to the United States, particularly the transportation equipment sector, Susan Spence, chair of the Institute for Supply Management’s Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said on a call earlier this month.
“They’ve been battered,” Spence said. “They have gotten a little better in the last month or so, but the transportation equipment industry is getting hit.”
A comment from a transportation equipment manufacturer in November’s ISM Purchasing Managers’ Index survey said that they’re starting to implement more permanent changes due to the tariff environment, including staff reductions, new guidance to shareholders and developing additional offshore manufacturing that would have been for U.S. export.
Spence said she interpreted the comment as a U.S. company “being punished” with the tariff uncertainty.
“It’s not making sense financially to expand in the U.S.,” Spence said. “Let’s just do what we can offshore because it’s cheaper.”
The paper manufacturing sector has also been hit with layoffs, cutting about 2,200 workers in September. International Paper has been shuttering and consolidating facilities and laying off employees across the United States over the past few months as part of a strategy to streamline operations.
Other manufacturing sectors that lost 1,000 jobs or more include furniture and related products, food with 1,500, and miscellaneous with 1,500.
What’s next
October’s employment situation report has been canceled and will instead be published with November’s data, expected to be released Dec. 16, according to the press release.
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute think tank, wrote in a Dec. 5 blog post that federal statistical agencies such as the BLS and the Census Bureau provide critical “gold standard data” for understanding the labor market.
She added that without the data, it will “materially harm” the Federal Reserve’s ability to make a data-informed decision on the interest rate policy, which is expected to be announced on Wednesday afternoon.
“The monthly jobs report provides policymakers, businesses, and the public with the most rigorous and timely labor market data they need to make high-stakes decisions,” Gould wrote. “Unfortunately, without a timely release, the Federal Reserve will meet [Wednesday] without the best data on the state of the labor market.”
Separate data from ADP Research, in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, estimated the manufacturing sector lost about 18,000 jobs in November.
“Hiring has been choppy of late as employers weather cautious consumers and an uncertain macroeconomic environment,” Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP, said in a Dec. 3 statement. “And while November’s slowdown was broad-based, it was led by a pullback among small businesses.”
