Published 10/15/2025 14:13 | Edited 10/15/2025 14:42
Donald Trump’s reindustrialization policy has entered into crisis. Data released by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that the country lost 78,000 manufacturing jobs in the year-to-date period ending in August, the sector’s worst performance since the 2020 pandemic.
The number contrasts with the official speech from the White House, which points to protectionism and tariffs as pillars of productive recovery.
Since January, American industry has accumulated a net drop of 38 thousand jobs. Industrial production fell 0.4% in August, and investment in new factories fell 6% in the year to July, according to the BLS.
The industrial recession comes amid an explosion in technology investment and reverses the initial momentum of the Chips and Science Act of 2022, which had doubled investment in semiconductor facilities by 2024.
Spending on artificial intelligence, data centers and processing hardware grew 37% in the first half of the year, and imports of next-generation chips increased 64% year-to-date. The government tries to associate these numbers with a “new productive era”, but the contrast between sectors reveals a structural change: the United States produces more and more data and fewer goods.
The effects of the tariffs adopted by Trump are visible. The increase in taxes on steel, aluminum and industrial inputs has increased production costs, eroded profit margins and reduced the competitiveness of companies that depend on foreign components. Automakers including General Motors, Caterpillar and John Deere reported billion-dollar tariff-related losses and lower margins than at any time since the pandemic.
Total industrial employment fell to 12.9 million workers, well below the peak of 19.5 million recorded in 1979. Despite tax incentives and the promise to repatriate production chains, the country continues to lose factories: the number of new plants opened in 2025 was the lowest in four years, according to the US Census.
Artificial intelligence, presented by Trump as the US’s new technological frontier, follows the opposite path. Investment in computer equipment rose 45% compared to 2024, raising the market value of companies like Nvidia and Microsoft to historic levels.
However, the growth of AI employs few workers. A data center, which requires more than a thousand workers during construction, houses just a few hundred once opened — far below a traditional automobile factory.
For analysts, the country is facing a new form of deindustrialization: productive capital migrates to sectors that concentrate wealth and generate little employment, while the real economy shrinks. Jobs created by protection policies are outweighed by losses resulting from increased costs and reduced demand.
Even with the slowdown, the government insists that the results are temporary. In a statement, the White House stated that “rebuilding American industrial dominance will take years” and that “tariffs and tax incentives are creating the foundations for a new cycle of prosperity”. In practice, the indicators show the opposite: less investment, fewer factories and fewer workers.
The contrast between the boom in artificial intelligence and the stagnation of factories highlights the failure of one of the central flags of Trumpism. While the government celebrates digital advancement, the worker base that supported the promise of ‘making America great again’ is shrinking again.
Source: vermelho.org.br
