Manufacturing and Services Chart Notes

Manufacturing as a percent of nonfarm payrolls peaked during WWII at 38.47 percent.

Services as a percent of nonfarm payrolls bottomed at 55.96 percent, also in WWII.

NAFTA did not go into effect until 1994. By that time, manufacturing as a percent of payrolls already declined to 14.97 percent.

By the time China joined the World Trade Organization, manufacturing as a percent of payrolls declined to 12.00 percent.

The chart shows that it is impossible for NAFTA to be responsible for the collapse. China is not the culprit either.

The bulk of the decline in manufacturing jobs is rising productivity. It takes fewer and fewer people to produce anything.

Trump cannot and will not reverse these trends, but he can accelerate them.

Manufacturing Jobs vs Nonfarm Payrolls