Manufacturing Employment

Year-over-year change in total manufacturing payrolls. Manufacturing has shrunk to ~8% of US employment but remains a cyclical bellwether — factory jobs are the first to go in downturns and among the first to return. Persistent YoY declines signal industrial weakness and often precede broader labor market deterioration.

Source: Federal Reserve (FRED), accessed via ALFRED (Archival FRED). ALFRED archives each data point exactly as it was first published on release day — before any revision by the reporting agency. The figures shown here are what investors, traders, and policymakers were actually looking at when the data came out. Economic releases like payrolls, GDP, and inflation are often revised significantly in subsequent months; ALFRED lets you see the real-time picture.