Did US manufacturing employment increase in the wake of the imposition of tariffs on imported steel in 2018?
No
The stated goal of the March 2018 steel tariffs was to reduce steel imports in order to bolster the U.S. steel industry. As of November 2019, there had been an increase of approximately 1,000 steel production jobs. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, steel production jobs have declined to below their 2018 totals.
While the 2018 tariffs did lead to the intended reduction in imports, they also caused steel prices for U.S. firms to rise, putting downstream U.S. manufacturing industries at a disadvantage relative to foreign competition. One estimate is that this increased costs of inputs facing U.S. firms resulted in about 75,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in firms where steel or aluminum are inputs into production. These estimates suggest that the steel tariffs had a net negative impact on U.S. manufacturing jobs.
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