Trump's Tariffs Are Starting To Kill Jobs

Goldman Sachs estimates that the tariffs will create about 100,000 manufacturing jobs while destroying 500,000 others. In Pennsylvania, it's already starting.

By Eric Boehm of Reason. Excerpts:

"Mack Trucks will lay off between 250 and 350 workers over the next few weeks, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports. A company spokesperson told the Capital-Star that the layoffs are due to "market uncertainty about freight rates and demand" and "the impact of tariffs.""

"higher prices for imported goods and component parts on the front end, coupled with lower sales expectations on the back end. In an environment like that, layoffs seem almost inevitable."

"A Goldman Sachs report published this week estimates that Trump's tariffs will create about 100,000 new manufacturing jobs (a result of supply chains shifting to the U.S., as the president wants) but will destroy 500,000 other jobs in the process.

That would reflect what happened during Trump's first term, when his tariffs cost about 245,000 American jobs, by one estimate."

""Firms expect conditions to worsen in the months ahead," the New York Federal Reserve noted in its April survey of manufacturers, which showed "a level of pessimism that has only occurred a handful of times in the history of the survey."

Ryan Petersen, CEO of Flexport, a global logistics firm, warned in a series of posts on X that ocean freight bookings from China are down 50 percent since Trump's tariffs hit."