President Donald Trump wants a "manufacturing renaissance" for the American economy. No more making iPhones in China or cars in Mexico: The president expects those jobs and factories to come "roaring back into our country." Some observers wonder if his policy overly romanticizes manufacturing jobs, or if those jobs can be filled.
Skeptics say Trump's tariff-driven efforts to bring manufacturing home might be "more about nostalgia or political pandering" than what is best for workers, said NPR's Planet Money. Actually, the manufacturing sector "punches above its weight." One study found that manufacturing employs just 10% of Americans but provides 20% of the country's "good jobs" that pay well regardless of a worker's educational background. But that doesn't necessarily make Trump's policy correct. "I think we've developed a kind of collective fetish" for manufacturing jobs, said Harvard University economist Gordon Hanson.
What did the commentators say?
Even when the jobs are good, it is not clear who will work them. "Companies are struggling to fill" more than 450,000 open manufacturing jobs across the country, said The Washington Post. The problem will get worse as American workers get older. The aging workforce has "long been a challenge for us," said Carolyn Lee, president of the Manufacturing Institute.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Nostalgia for the golden age of American manufacturing "will make the U.S. poorer," said Tej Parikh at the Financial Times. The "allure" of bringing back that age is "clear," but backing Trump's trade wars requires a belief that "America can, and should, bring back labor-intensive factory jobs." In truth, American manufacturing output has increased in recent decades even as the number of jobs dropped, and the U.S. is already a "manufacturing superpower." Creating even more factories and factory jobs will be "hard, undesirable and difficult to achieve with tariffs."
American companies are having trouble filling those jobs but "not because of trade policy," said Allysia Finley at The Wall Street Journal. While "productivity-enhancing technology" and "inexpensive imports" once caused a loss of manufacturing jobs, the generation that suffered those losses is "sailing into the sunset." Right now there are "fewer young Americans who want to work in factories" because they do not want to do "jobs they view as beneath them." It is time to remind Americans that there is "dignity in any work."
What next?
Trump's tariffs "won't bring manufacturing back," said Business Insider. That is based on a Wells Fargo analysis that found "high labor costs and a lack of workers" would make reviving factory jobs an "uphill battle." American companies would have to spend $2.9 trillion to bring manufacturing employment back to 1979 levels. The president's trade wars aim to "spur a durable rebound in U.S. manufacturing employment," said the Wells Fargo report. But a "meaningful increase" in that employment "does not appear likely in the foreseeable future."
-
How the One Piece manga flag became a Gen Z resistance symbolThe Explainer Straw-hat skull seen at protests in Indonesia, Nepal and France shows how young people are ‘reshaping the vocabulary of dissent’
-
Dive into Palau’s underwater wonderlandThe Week Recommends A luxury Four Seasons catamaran is the ideal jumping-off point for the reefs, wrecks and coral islands of this unspoilt archipelago
-
Sea Containers London: new suites bring maritime flair to SouthbankThe Week Recommends Four luxury suites inspired by the Golden Age of ocean liners are crammed with antiques that you can buy
-
Gen Z is facing a credit score crisisIn the Spotlight The average Gen Z credit score has dropped three points in 2025
-
Who benefits from Trump’s new $100,000 H-1B visa fee?In the Spotlight American workers might see gains. But there are drawbacks.
-
Fed cuts interest rates a quarter pointSpeed Read ‘The cut suggests a broader shift toward concern about cracks forming in the job market’
-
The potential warning sign of an auto lender’s bankruptcyIn the Spotlight Tricolor collapse an ‘extreme example’ of economy’s challenges
-
Trump proposes ending quarterly earnings reportsSpeed Read The SEC would have to approve any changes
-
Job hugging: the growing trend of clinging to your jobIn the Spotlight People are staying in their jobs longer than ever
-
Rupert Murdoch's conservative son wins succession battleSpeed Read Lachlan Murdoch will get control over the media empire that includes Fox News and The Wall Street Journal following his father's death, while his siblings will receive payouts
-
Why are global postal services cutting off package delivery to the US?Today's Big Question 'Uncertainty' around new tariff rules halts small-dollar imports
