According to the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) Monday Economic for this week, manufacturing employment increased by 32,000 in October, up from 23,000 in September. Through the first 10 months of 2022, the sector hired 367,000 employees, building on the 365,000 workers added in calendar year 2021. These are the largest employment gains the sector has seen since 1994. Currently, the manufacturing sector has 12,922,000 employees, the most since November 2008.

In October, the largest increases in manufacturing employment occurred in computer and electronic products (+ 5,400), fabricated metal products (+ 5,200), transportation equipment (+ 4,700), nonmetallic mineral products (+ 3,200), machinery (+ 3,000) and plastics and rubber products (+ 3,000). In contrast, sectors with declining employment in October included wood products (-900), textile mills (-700) and textile product mills (-600), among others.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) hiked the federal funds rate by 75 basis points – the fourth consecutive meeting with such an increase. NAM expects a 50-basis-point increase from the FOMC at its Dec. 13–14 meeting, with additional 25-basis-point increases at each of the next two meetings (Jan. 31 – Feb. 1, 2023, and March 21–22, 2023).