72,000 Factory Jobs Since December. I’m Betting on a Lot More.

Let me be straight with you, because that’s the only way this blog works: the great American factory comeback is not finished. It’s barely started. But the start of something has a look to it, and this is it.

Here’s where we actually are. The September jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (opens in a new tab) says manufacturing employment was “little changed” for the month, up 9,000. That’s not a headline that makes anybody dance. But the same report says manufacturing is up 72,000 jobs since a recent low in December 2025, and the average factory workweek is sitting at 40.6 hours. People are working full shifts. Machinery and plastics plants added jobs last month. That’s the kind of quiet, boring progress that turns into something big if you leave it alone long enough.

Now, why am I optimistic instead of just shrugging? Because the rules of the game changed, and changed in the right direction.

The tax code finally likes the factory floor

For years, if you wanted to build a plant in America, the tax code basically said, “Sure, go ahead, and we’ll let you write it off slowly over a few decades.” That’s backwards. You want more of something, you stop punishing it.

President Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill fixed a lot of that. According to the IRS (opens in a new tab), companies can now elect to deduct up to 100% of the cost of “qualified production property” — basically the factory building itself, used for manufacturing, chemical production, agriculture or refining — when it’s placed in service after July 4, 2025 and before January 1, 2031. On top of that, the law made 100% first-year depreciation for equipment permanent (opens in a new tab), and it lets businesses immediately deduct their domestic research and development (opens in a new tab) again instead of spreading it out over years.

Think about what that means if you run a machine shop in Ohio or a plastics plant in Texas. You buy the new line, you build the new bay, and you get to keep more of your own money this year, which you can turn right around and spend on the next hire. That’s free-market capitalism doing what it does best: rewarding the people who actually take the risk.

Why I’d rather be early

I know the critics. They’ll point at the monthly number and say, “See? Nothing’s happening.” But nobody builds a factory in a month. You find the land, you get the permits, you order equipment with a long lead time, you train the crew. The decisions being made right now, under these rules, show up in the jobs reports of 2027 and 2028.

And honestly? I’d rather be the guy who said “this is working” a little early than the guy who spent ten years explaining why America can’t make things anymore. We heard that for my whole adult life. It was wrong. We can make things. We just had leaders who didn’t care whether we did.

This President cares. You can argue about tactics all day long, but the direction is unmistakable: build it here, hire here, and keep the profits here.

What I’m watching

The next BLS report comes out on November 6. I’ll be watching manufacturing jobs, the factory workweek, and whether machinery keeps adding hands. I’ll tell you what it says, good or bad. That’s the deal.

But if you’re asking me where I’d place my bet? On the American factory. Every time.

Sources

• Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Employment Situation, September 2026 (opens in a new tab)
• IRS, guidance on qualified production property under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill (Feb. 20, 2026) (opens in a new tab)
• IRS, guidance on permanent 100% first-year depreciation (opens in a new tab)
• Senate Finance Committee, section-by-section summary (domestic R&E expensing) (opens in a new tab)