Plastics and rubber sector lost 3,500 jobs from August to September

By Karen Hanna 

With the unemployment rate steadily rising since the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, employment numbers within the manufacturing sector fell for the fifth consecutive month, according to September numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). 

Accounting for seasonal adjustments, the number of people working in the plastics and rubber sector fell by 3,500 from August to September, from about 718,500 to 715,000. Overall, manufacturing losses over the same time period numbered 6,000. 

In the post-pandemic period, manufacturing numbers peaked at 12.9 million workers in February 2023; as of September, about 12.7 million people worked in manufacturing.  

BLS numbers for September and October were delayed by the federal government’s six-week-long shutdown, which ended in mid-November. As of Dec. 10, the October unemployment rate was not available; September’s rate was 4.4 percent, the highest level since October 2021. 

The unemployment rate among manufacturing workers was 3.7 percent. 

Within the plastics and rubber sector, the unemployment rate was comparatively low — just 2.4 percent in September, compared with 5.9 percent the previous year. Ten thousand industry workers reported being unemployed in September, compared with 24,000 in 2024. 

However, according to numbers released Dec. 9, there were 410,000 openings in manufacturing in October, about a 6 percent increase over the 385,000 openings in September, but less than the 455,000 job openings reported in October 2024. 

Meanwhile, 306,000 workers took new jobs in manufacturing in October and 329,000 people left the sector, a slight increase over the 327,000 who separated from the industry the previous month. 

According to the BLS, the number of unemployed people was at 7.6 million in September, compared with 6.9 million in September 2024.