While Trump Trade Fights Gain Steam, Manufacturing Still Gaining Jobs

By Matthew McMullan
Oct 29 2018 |
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Will this week’s BLS report throw cold water on the growth?

President Trump’s trade fight with China continues on multiple fronts. This dispute the president is prosecuting against Beijing is a big deal that is regularly overtaken by other events in the news cycle, and it isn’t helped that the president himself is, ummm, an imperfect messenger to make sense of it all. Lord knows what he’s tweeting about today.

In spite of whatever faults one may find in the presidential rhetoric, though, manufacturing jobs have been on the uptick under this administration.  And stories of metals consuming businesses, in spite of tariffs on steel and aluminum, still pop up. Like this one out of Hillsborough County, Florida:

This Friday, after we’re done gorging on Halloween candy, we’ll get another jobs report. We'll see if the employment growth in the manufacturing sector will continue apace.