Media contact: Matt McMullan, [email protected], 202-695-8108
Manufacturing closed out the year on a positive note, as 17,000 new jobs were created in December, according to new employment data from the Labor Department.
As President Obama prepares to leave office, this will be the last month we will follow his job creation progress via the #AAMeter. Over the past four years, AAM used the #AAMeter to track Obama's goal of creating 1 million new manufacturing jobs. It now sits at +315,000 jobs.
Said Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) President Scott Paul:
"Factory workers received some good news in the December jobs report. The manufacturing sector made a rare, outsized contribution to private sector job growth, adding 17,000 new jobs, including many in heavy, traditional industries. Although this is only one data point, the increase shows that better manufacturing job growth is possible, and with the right policies, we can create even more opportunities."
Paul added:
"We applaud President Obama for setting an ambitious manufacturing job creation goal at the start of his second presidential term. While we didn't see a million new jobs, there were hundreds of thousands of new factory jobs created, which is a good thing.
"President-elect Donald Trump also has promised to grow American manufacturing jobs. We believe in reminding our leaders of their campaign promises, and will work to hold the president-elect accountable."
On the trade front, the Commerce Department reported a goods and services deficit of $45.2 billion in November, up $2.9 billion from the previous month. The goods deficit with China hit $28.4 billion.
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