According to the National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) Monday Economic Report for this week, manufacturing employment rose by 11,000 in April, bouncing back from a decline of 8,000 in March. The sector has added 17,000 workers YTD. With that said, there were 12,991,000 manufacturing employees in April, the most since November 2008.

In April, the largest increases in manufacturing employment occurred in transportation equipment (+6,700, including 5,800 for motor vehicles and parts), fabricated metal products (+6,300), computer and electronic products (+3,200) and chemicals (+2,000). In contrast, the biggest employment declines in the sector for the month occurred in paper and paper products (-2,700), electrical equipment, appliances and components (-2,600), nonmetallic mineral products (-2,300), wood products (-1,400) and textile product mills (-1,000).

On a YoY basis, the strongest growth over the past 12 months occurred in the following manufacturing sectors: transportation equipment (+79,700, including 47,100 from motor vehicles and parts), food manufacturing (+42,300), fabricated metal products (+30,400), machinery (+24,300), computer and electronic products (+22,300) and chemicals (+20,900).

The Federal Open Market Committee increased the target federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 5.00% to 5.25%. It was the 10th consecutive FOMC meeting with an increase in short-term interest rates, which was zero to 0.25% before the March 15–16, 2022 meeting.