U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Since 1939: The Long Decline and the 2026 Rebound
How many Americans work in manufacturing? Charts of 85+ years of BLS data: the 1979 peak, the 2000s collapse, and the 72,000 jobs added since December 2025.
5 min readBlog category
Economy
US manufacturing jobs, output and trade explained with charts built from official BLS, Federal Reserve and Census data.