this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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The labor market is slowing, but it’s all good news in the White House.

The U.S. added 139,000 jobs in May, a slight decline from April, according to a jobs report released Friday. The unemployment rate remained at 4.2 percent, still within the ballpark of historic lows reached in 2023, when the unemployment rate reached 3.4 percent—the lowest it had been in more than five decades. But within the folds of the report hid a major red flag for Donald Trump’s agenda: The U.S. is still bleeding manufacturing jobs.

But even the president’s favorite conservative network couldn’t hide its dismay at the slight manufacturing downturn.

“Now, 8,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in May. That’s not what you wanted to see,” said Fox Business host Stuart Varney.

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[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Industrial capital spending has never, ever been as low as it is right now, even during Covid. It's pretty much zero, because nobody has any intention of investing in any sort of industrial infrastructure in a complete clusterfuck of economic and trade policy. The chicken hasn't come close to roosting yet, give it another few months and watch the bloodbath.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

And industrial capital takes a long time to realize. Speaking as an industrial engineer who's been involved in the process, it's a pain in the ass amount of time between us getting called in and floor workers getting called in. Once factories shutter it'll be years before theyre back online. And I don't see it happening under Trump.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

How are you finding it for supply line on equipment for the floor, or do you see any of that side of the process? Because as far as I know, most of the machinery is not making it's way into the country from China and Europe because of tariffs, so even if you put up a building, you wouldn't be able to outfit it. If it is getting in, it's going to be prohibitively expensive to outfit a line.

[–] Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 8 points 19 hours ago

They also gorged themselves on basically zero percent lending, used it for things along the lines of stock buybacks and now their equipment/supply chain is failing. Low corporate taxes mean there's no incentive to reinvest, certainly not upping wages.

Capitalism is a cancer that's running out of healthy cells.

[–] RedditIsDeddit@lemmy.world 62 points 1 day ago (2 children)

it's almost like Trump doesn't know what he's doing or something

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (2 children)

He knows exactly what he’s doing. Stealing money. That’s it.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 8 hours ago

He'll now make 2 dozen phone calls and demand companies suck it up and hire more people at a loss

[–] huppakee@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

it's almost like Trump doesn't know what ~~he's doing~~ damage he's doing while stealing money or something*

[–] Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He doesn't care. It's not a concern whatsoever.

[–] huppakee@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

He's proven that alright

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

His only motivator is greed because he wasn’t love by his dad.

[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If the smartest smerican doesn't know, who else?

[–] Sc00ter@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago
[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 82 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

I know more were lost in June. My company, in a tariff response, is moving US jobs out because none of our global customers want to pay said tariffs, so we're shrinking our us manufacturer operations and making other sites.

Edit: the tariffs to import the raw materials to actually make stuff is what costs my employer the most.

[–] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 56 points 1 day ago

I work at a factory in Canada. We just got a huge contract from European customers and we've been told we're running more machines on 24/7 shifts to meet demand and hiring 50 new staff to do it. The clients switched from producing in the US to avoid costs associated with the trade war.

[–] Sabin10@lemmy.world 50 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Putting tariffs on raw materials and natural resources you don't have domestically is possibly the dumbest thing a politician could do.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

I think in most cases we do technically have them domestically, but we're rightfully unwilling to strip-mine ourselves and wreck the landscape to extract them. On the other hand, Trump, with his rapist mentality, is perfectly happy to force that to happen, will of the public be damned.

[–] jawa22@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have been working for and by myself as a machinist for the last 15 years. The first round of steel tariffs hurt a lot, but I was able to pull through just barely. Now, I am losing every contract I've got when they expire (which is soon) and as a small fish I have almost no bargaining power on bids for jobs. I am likely going to have to shutter the business and sell all the equipment.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 2 points 18 hours ago

Almost like that was part of the plan

[–] thedruid@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

Companies with warehouses and facilities in multiple countries are all sitting pretty. In fact some are expanding quickly

[–] Placebonickname@lemmy.world 72 points 1 day ago (9 children)

U mean asking manufacturers to pay MORE to produce in America encourages them to move production to other countries? You’re kidding!

[–] HorseTesselator@midwest.social 46 points 1 day ago (6 children)

It's worse than that.

Let's say I want to open a widget factory in America because of the tariffs. Sure, I can avoid the tariffs on the widgets themselves by making them here, but there's a big problem...

What about the tariffs on the materials needed to make them?

So Trump wants to strong-arm a minerals deal with some country via a protection racket only to... tariff them?

Jesus Christ.

Unironically, depending on how the supply chain is arranged for your industry, it may actually be cheaper to move your manufacturing off shore and eat the tariff once instead of getting nickeled and dimed for every single item you need to assemble on shore. Hell, Vietnam already figured out you can ship Chinese products through to America as grey imports and skim off the top.

It is hard for me to articulate just how fucking stupid all of this is. It's no small wonder how this guy bankrupted six casinos.

But hey, Art of the Deal, baby.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It is hard for me to articulate just how fucking stupid all of this is. It's no small wonder how this guy bankrupted six casinos.

I always assumed they were bankrupted on purpose as part of some sort of money laundering scheme, but you're bringing me around to the idea that it may actually have been sheer stupidity rather than crime.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Unironically, depending on how the supply chain is arranged for your industry, it may actually be cheaper to move your manufacturing off shore and eat the tariff once instead of getting nickeled and dimed for every single item you need to assemble on shore.

And that's not even accounting for forecasting, which is still necessary in the stupid-frahile JIT approach. Noone will want to sign a long-term supply contract when they could get screwed by sudden tarrifs and the JIT people have to rely on luck to avoid subjecting customers to sticker-price whiplash.

It's all just so fucking stupid.

[–] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

This is exactly what some of the biggest manufacturers of cars in America are thinking of doing. They manufacture in America but a lot of the parts are imported and would cost them a fortune to import. It's cheaper to move factories to China, build the full part, and then ship it over because the tarrifs are higher on the individual tech parts inside the assembly than a finished product using those parts.

[–] huppakee@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

I don't disagree with your point, but except for electronics, and Italian marble America can make a lot of the materials themselves. The biggest problem is in many cases the price of labour in the US. And for complex things like cars you can't even move the entire supply chain even if you wanted to.

There was this guy who had a theory that there was nobody on earth who could make a microwave oven, turns out he was right: there are people who can know how to make a certain part of it and other people who knew about it's assembly nobody can create one start to finish. So imagine with more complex machines how difficult it'd be to bring all those skills and knowledge 'home' to America.

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[–] mhague@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

A 2021 study by Oxford Economics and the U.S.-China Business Council concluded that the United States lost 245,000 jobs as a result of the Trump tariffs.

They're going to study these tariffs and detail how they fucked America and by the time Republicans do something similar nobody will ever, EVER, bring this up again.

[–] Doomsider@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Small businesses come and go, but lately I have seen a shit ton of small businesses disappear.

Every policy makes winners and losers. The current administrations policies are making a lot more losers than winners to enrich themselves. It is pure unfettered corruption.

[–] mriguy@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago

Looks like they may need to destroy a few more government agencies that collect and distribute labor statistics. That will solve it.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

jfc, ICE looks like school yard bully gravy seals

That's cause they used to be, I mean they still are, but they used to be as well.

[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago
[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Anyway so I've noticed how the freeways are clear sooner than usual after 5pm. They're still long, but sooner means less people in the rat race trying to get home from work.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

There was a study or survey or something that showed people are leaving the office earlier than they did before the pandemic, the average being between 3 and 4 pm.

100% true for me

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Same here. The pandemic showed me a couple of things very clearly:

  1. humans make a shit tom of noise.
  2. we pollute and change the climate with our pollution.
  3. staying at home gives me freedom to learn and do a whole bunch of other things.
[–] grue@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah that's what I really meant. Cars, planes and large machinery. When all that stopped for the couple of years...days sometimes weeks at a time, everything was eerily silent.

[–] AngrySquirrel@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That sounds nice. Where I was at the time was close enough to a baptist church that I couldn't escape their speakers blaring doomsday baptist sermons and gospel music. All day. Every day. For the entire time that churches weren't allowed to meet inside.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

Oh that's hilarious. We used to live near a Jehovah's temple or whatever they call it. That literally stopped going house to house for a while.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Scrambles to do what? Buy or sell?

[–] zurohki@aussie.zone 10 points 1 day ago

Just scrambles in place, like eggs.

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