Harris says Trump has lost manufacturing jobs. Is that true? Here is a review of the facts.

In the final weeks before Election DayVice President Kamala Harris usually targeting the former President of Donald Trump record of production activities.

In particular, Harris says that during the Trump administration, the US lost about 200,000 manufacturing jobs – and that about 800,000 “new” jobs have been added since President Biden took office.

Government records show Harris often cites highly accurate figures, though he sometimes overstates gains made during the Biden administration. Moreover, his comments leave out the context of the important topic of the section a great plague both job losses under Trump and subsequent increases under Mr. Biden.

What the data says about productivity under Trump

At a rally in Michigan in early October, Harris said, “America lost about 200,000 manufacturing jobs” while Trump was president. Harris added that “those losses started before this epidemic.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, Harris’ number is very accurate; by the time Trump leaves office in January 2021, the US will have 178,000 fewer jobs than when his presidency began.

A Harris campaign spokesman said the pre-crisis loss refers to a drop of 48,000 manufacturing jobs between January 2019 and January 2020, shown in BLS data.

However, the vice president’s remarks leave open another important issue about Trump’s record. As of March 2020, the US had seen a net gain of over 350,000 jobs during the Trump administration.

As the COVID-19 pandemic shut down parts of the economy in 2020, the US shed 1.3 million manufacturing jobs between March and April of that year. The numbers began to climb again in the following months but did not return to pre-pandemic levels by the time Trump leaves office in January 2021.

CBS News reached out to the Trump campaign for comment, and a spokesperson pointed to Trump’s record on manufacturing jobs before the pandemic.

Before the pandemic, the number of manufacturing jobs in the United States had been growing at its fastest pace since 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By the time former President Obama left office in 2017, the sector had emerged from a deep recession, although there were 195,000 fewer jobs than at the start of his presidency.

What the facts say about the proposal under Biden-Harris

Manufacturing job numbers continued to increase due to pandemic losses after Biden and Harris took office; however, Harris sometimes overstates their account.

In a recent interview on “The View,” Harris complained about “creating about 800,000 new jobs in manufacturing.” At a separate event in October, he said 730,000 new manufacturing jobs had been created.

Early September data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that since Mr. Biden took office in January 2021, the US has added about 729,000 manufacturing jobs.

The data suggests that not all of these were “new” manufacturing jobs created since Mr. Biden took office, as some job gains may have rebounded after the recession during the COVID. There were about 137,000 more manufacturing jobs in September 2024 compared to pre-crisis levels in February 2020.

The increase in the number of manufacturing jobs occurred mainly in the first two years of the presidency of Biden and began to decline in his third year – the same as the first three years of Trump.

It is also important to note that in Aug. 21, the Labor Department released a preliminary analysis of its data that estimated that the number of manufacturing jobs created in the 12 months ending in March may have been 115,000 more than the original estimate. . The final number should be released in early 2025. If that review continues, it will put the total number of manufacturing jobs added during the Biden-Harris administration near 614,000.

The experts said CBS News The lower estimate suggests that the economy was not as strong as it appeared to be for most of 2023 and early 2024. But updates to the jobs data are rare. The Department of Labor provides regular updates annual benchmark reviews trying to make a better account for companies that are being formed or going out of business.

Overall production has decreased over the past 40 years

The number of U.S. manufacturing jobs has fallen sharply since it peaked at 19.6 million jobs in 1979, and today fewer than 13 million people are employed in the industry, according to data from the BLS.

During this period, manufacturing jobs declined under both Democratic and Republican presidents alike, as the manufacturing sector contracted due to economic conditions beyond the president’s control, including the great recession and the rise of automation and international trade. The American economy has undergone major structural changes since the 1970s, largely due to globalization. And the Democratic and Republican administrations and Republicans in general have given companies the freedom to send jobs overseas.

Some research suggests that about 1 million jobs were lost in China from 1999 to 2011, after the US improved trade relations with the country.

—Julia Ingram contributed reporting

Alain Sherter contributed to this report.