Industrial Labor Signals is a recurring look at what current data means for anyone selling into, staffing, or investing in American manufacturing. This edition covers hiring trends and is updated monthly with the latest jobs and JOLTS data.
Manufacturers had 530,000 job openings at the end of August, 76,000 fewer than a month earlier, while hires rose to 359,000. The shift narrows a gap that widened sharply in July, when openings climbed to 606,000 against only 330,000 hires. This month’s labor report covers the payroll headlines. This edition looks at the job openings data underneath them.
This matters most for staffing and recruiting firms working the industrial space, but it reaches further than that. The categories adding workers are also the categories buying raw material, equipment, and services, which makes this as much a sales signal as a labor one.
The Numbers Behind the Gap
- Manufacturing job openings totaled 530,000 at the end of August, a preliminary, not seasonally adjusted figure that is down 76,000 from July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Hires rose by 29,000 in August, reaching 359,000, according to BLS hires data.
- Based on those figures, the gap between openings and hires narrowed to 171,000, down 105,000 or about 38% from July.
- Durable goods openings stood at 379,000, about 53% above August 2025, while nondurable goods openings, at 151,000, were about 15% below a year earlier.
- Manufacturers added 9,000 jobs in September, and durable goods accounted for 8,000 of them, according to BLS payroll tables.
A Gap That Narrowed, and a Baseline That Stayed High
July’s openings spike has largely unwound. Openings climbed to 606,000 in July while hires reached only 330,000, a gap of 276,000. In August, openings eased to 530,000 and hires rose to 359,000, shrinking the gap to 171,000.
The pullback leaves the underlying demand for workers intact. Openings remain roughly 25% above their August 2025 level of 425,000, and durable goods accounts for more than the entire increase: durable openings are up about 131,000 over the year while nondurable openings are down about 26,000. Manufacturers of machinery, metals, electrical equipment, and other durable products are carrying a much heavier load of unfilled positions than they were a year ago.
One note on reading the data: BLS describes the August changes in job openings and hires as little changed across industries, and single-industry JOLTS figures can swing widely from month to month and are revised as more reports arrive. The year-over-year comparison is the steadier read.
Where September’s Growth Is Concentrated
Job openings data splits manufacturing into durable and nondurable goods only, so the payroll tables show which categories are actually adding workers. Durable goods added 8,000 of September’s 9,000 manufacturing jobs, and the categories behind the gains are specific and filterable. According to MNI’s monthly analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report:
- Plastics and rubber manufacturing added 4,600 jobs, the month’s largest gain. Rubber and Miscellaneous Plastic Products, SIC 30, accounts for more than 13,000 companies in the IndustrySelect database.
- Machinery manufacturing added 4,500 jobs. Industrial Machinery and Equipment, SIC 35, accounts for more than 40,000 companies.
- Transportation equipment added 3,400 jobs. Transportation Equipment, SIC 37, accounts for more than 10,000 companies.
- Wood products added 2,100 jobs. Lumber and Wood Products, SIC 24, accounts for more than 15,000 companies.
- Electrical equipment added 1,800 jobs. Electronic and Other Electric Equipment, SIC 36, accounts for nearly 13,000 companies
- Chemical manufacturing added 900 jobs. Chemicals and Allied Products, SIC 28, accounts for nearly 14,000 companies.
- Marginal gains also showed up in semiconductors, beverage and tobacco, and navigational and measuring instruments.
Plastics and rubber counts as nondurable goods, where its gain was offset by declines in paper, printing, and other categories, which is why nondurable goods finished the month up only 1,000. These company counts move as MNI’s research continually updates the database, so treat them as a current snapshot rather than a fixed figure.
Checking the Watchlist: Where Data Centers Come Back In
Machinery and electrical equipment, two of the categories behind Industrial Signals’ coverage of the AI data center supply chain, added jobs in both August and September. Fabricated metals, the third, added jobs in August and shed 900 in September. Two of the three held their ground across both months, and the reversal in fabricated metals is a reminder to read the pattern across months rather than in any single report. The demand story behind the watchlist is unchanged: the buildout of new AI campuses runs through cooling systems, structural steel, and power infrastructure as much as it does server racks and chips. Companies like Eaton and Virginia Transformer Corp have been expanding U.S. facilities specifically to keep pace with that demand, and Wood Mackenzie projects the electrical equipment market tied to U.S. data centers alone will roughly double by 2030. One data point on its own is a note. Several data points pointing the same direction, months apart, is a pattern worth watching.
Where Manufacturing Lost Ground
Losses in September were modest and scattered. Paper manufacturing led the declines, shedding 2,600 jobs, followed by furniture (-2,000), printing and related support activities (-1,800), communications equipment (-1,000), fabricated metals (-900), and nonmetallic minerals (-800).
What This Means If You Sell to Manufacturers
Staffing and Recruiting Firms
Openings have come down from July’s peak, but at 530,000 they remain about 25% above a year ago, and durable goods accounts for the whole increase. That keeps machinery, electrical equipment, transportation equipment, and other durable categories the strongest places to look for employers with open requisitions. BLS also reported that quits rose by 28,000 in nondurable goods manufacturing, which typically means more positions to backfill in categories like plastics and rubber, chemicals, and food.
Sales and Business Development Teams
A manufacturer with open positions is usually a manufacturer with work to fill them. Hiring pressure tends to track production and purchasing activity, so raw material suppliers, MRO providers, and equipment vendors selling into machinery, electrical equipment, and transportation equipment manufacturers have a timely reason to prioritize outreach, even as the monthly openings count cools.
Workforce Development, Trade Schools, and HR Advisory Firms
Openings that sit about 25% above last year, even after a monthly pullback, give this audience a current, sourced number behind the skills-gap conversation.
Automation and HR Technology Vendors
Employers carrying a heavier load of unfilled positions than a year ago are more receptive to conversations about automation, applicant tracking, and workforce management tools. Worth a mention even if it is not this month’s primary audience.
Build Your List From This Signal
Three filters turn this month’s data into a working target list. Start with SIC code: machinery (SIC 35), electrical equipment (SIC 36), transportation equipment (SIC 37), and plastics and rubber (SIC 30) led September’s payroll gains, and durable goods carries the heaviest load of openings. Layer in geography to prioritize regions with a strong existing base in these categories. Finally, filter by employee count to reach the small and midsize manufacturers most likely to feel hiring pressure directly, since they lack a large HR department to absorb it.
Explore IndustrySelect for Yourself
IndustrySelect gives you live access to MNI’s database of nearly 350,000 U.S. manufacturers, suppliers, and industrial service providers, backed by more than a century of human-verified industrial research rather than scraped data. Every filter described in this piece, SIC code, geography, and employee count, is available on every company profile, and each one includes verified executive contacts, so instead of guessing who to reach at a company that’s actively hiring or expanding, you get names, titles, and direct emails for the people actually making these decisions.
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Editor’s note: This is a monthly edition of Industrial Labor Signals, updated on the same schedule as our labor report using the latest BLS employment and JOLTS data. Job openings and hires figures are not seasonally adjusted. Company counts by SIC code reflect a snapshot of the IndustrySelect database.