NPR: The job market is showing signs of weakness as Trump's tariffs take effect August 1, 2025

The job market is showing signs of weakness as Trump's tariffs take effect
https://www.npr.org/2025/08/01/nx-s1-5488807/jobs-employment-labor-trump-tariffs?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

August 1, 20258:54 AM ET



The job market weakened sharply during the late spring and early summer as President Trump's tariffs began to take effect.

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Factories shed 11,000 jobs in July. Domestic manufacturers are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the president's trade policies. ....................

"These tariff wars are beginning to wear us out," one anonymous factory manager said in a survey released Friday by the Institute for Supply Management. "There is zero clarity about the future, and it's been a difficult few months trying to figure out where everything is going to land and the impact on our business. So far, tremendous and unexpected costs have been incurred."

The unemployment rate rose in July even as nearly 40,000 people dropped out of the workforce. The share of adults who are working or looking for work has fallen by half a percent in the last year.

The share of immigrants in the workforce has fallen even more sharply, which could be making it harder for employers to fill the jobs they'd like to.

"I think it's mostly a labor supply story," says Jed Kolko, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "When you look sector by sector, the big slowdown in employment this year is in, first of all federal government employment, of course, but also in some sectors that are particularly reliant on immigrants such as construction, home health aides and accommodation and hospitality." ........................................