Manufacturing employment rebounded in March, adding 15K jobs

The manufacturing industry has has recovered from staff losses earlier this year, added 15,000 jobs in March, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday.

That’s a 400% year-over-year increase, which saw the loss of 5,000 jobs, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data. The report also includes revised employment figures for March, with a loss of 6,000 jobs. Initial data showed 12,000.

Jim Pagliero, president of energy, engineering and manufacturing staff at The Planet Group, said in a statement that the energy, services, engineering and manufacturing industries are not showing “a drop in demand, but a shift toward ethical, purpose-driven hiring.”

“Companies are investing, especially in infrastructure, grid development, and production, but high-level decisions are measured and closely linked to the funded activity,” said Pagliero.

Transportation equipment and parts of fabricated metal products gained the most jobs last month at about 6,500 and 5,200, respectively, according to the report. These were followed by the non-metallic mineral products sector about 2 800. Paper; plastic and rubber products; and beverages, tobacco, leather and allied products with a profit of 2,400 jobs or more.

The chemicals sector lost the most jobs in March with about 5,200 cuts, followed by the furniture and related products sector with 2,000 losses. Basic metals, food and miscellaneous – which are products not classified in other sectors – lost 1,100 or more jobs.

Meanwhile, manufacturing unemployment rose by more than 7% to 513,000 workers in March, compared to 479,000 over the year.

List of jobs contracted in March, enrollment at 48.7%according to the latest report of the Institute of Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers’ Index released on Wednesday.

It is the 30th consecutive month the employment index has contracted, Susan Spence, chairwoman of ISM’s Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, said in the report. Among the six major manufacturing industries, only transportation equipment and machinery reported higher employment levels in March.

“What cannot be seen in the numbers is that hiring is still happening, but selective and linked to long-term financial plans, creating a controlled and unequal type of hiring environment,” said Pagliero.

Opened, fired, changed and separated

The BLS reported that job openings in January increased nearly 10% to 439,000 compared to the same period last year, according to its job openings and labor productivity data. released on March 31.

Distribution, however, decreased by more than 8% YOY to 295,000. The breakdown included 172,000 retirees and 95,000 layoffs and exits, according to the BLS. Other divisions, which result in retirement, death, disability and transfers within the company, increased by 22% to 28,000.

Additionally, updated data from the January 2026 JOLT report now shows 510,000 opportunities, nearly a 3% increase from the original data. reported in March.