Quick Summary
Additional Context
The US added 5,000 manufacturing jobs in July, although in its article on the subject, Wall Street Journal notes that there are still (slightly) fewer manufacturing workers in the US than there were a year ago. On the other hand, it is perhaps a positive sign that the pool of applicants for manufacturing jobs continues to skew younger: in July, 85 percent of US manufacturing applicants were under the age of 45, up from 79 percent compared to July 2025.
Among other reasons, this matters because millions of US manufacturing workers are expected to retire over the next decade. US manufacturing giants have still been rather cautious about putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to reshoring, but to the extent that they really are investing in domestic US manufacturing capacity