The job opening rate for durable goods manufacturing hit 4 percent, the highest ever recorded in data going back to 2000, according to a report issued Monday by the Department of Labor. That’s an increase from 3.7 percent a month earlier.
The figures suggest that tariffs are not hurting U.S. manufacturers.
Durable goods manufacturing was one area that was thought to be particularly exposed both to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum and retaliatory tariffs from China and others. But the Labor Department said there were 332,000 job openings in the sector in October. In addition, there were 227,000 durable goods hires.
These are signs of continued expansion for U.S. factories and heavy demand for products made in the U.S.
The metals tariffs were predicted to cost jobs because there are more than ten times as many workers in metals-using industries than in steel and aluminum manufacturing.
Economists claimed that the tariffs would cost as many as 146,000 jobs in metals-using industries. Many journalists have claimed, without evidence, that tariffs are already raising prices (they are not) or hurting U.S. manufacturers.
The layoff rate for durable goods manufacturing was just 1.0 percent, slightly above the previous month but below the unadjusted 1.3 percent rate for the broader economy. In other words, layoffs are less common in manufacturing than they are in other jobs.
The greatest President of the 21st century, possibly the greatest ever, in 2016 said of manufacturing,
ZitatSome of those jobs are just not going to come back… When somebody says like the person you just mentioned who I’m not going to advertise for, that he’s going to bring all these jobs back. Well how exectly are you going to do that? What are you going to do? There’s uh-uh no answer to it. He just says. “I’m going to negotiate a better deal.” Well how? How exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And usually the answer is, he doesn’t have an answer.
The greatest President of the 21st century, possibly the greatest ever, in 2016 said of manufacturing,
ZitatSome of those jobs are just not going to come back… When somebody says like the person you just mentioned who I’m not going to advertise for, that he’s going to bring all these jobs back. Well how exectly are you going to do that? What are you going to do? There’s uh-uh no answer to it. He just says. “I’m going to negotiate a better deal.” Well how? How exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And usually the answer is, he doesn’t have an answer.
(emphasis added)
Could it be possible that 'the greatest pres ever', the talking heads, and all the 'experts' were all wrong?
Illegitimi non Carborundum
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.- Orwell
The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it - Orwell