The number of U.S. manufacturing workers increased about 4% to nearly 12.8 million from 2015 to 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, those numbers plummeted 10% or by 1.3 million from March 2020 to April 2020 due to layoffs and business closures. Worker numbers have steadily grown back as the economy recovered, surpassing pre-COVID numbers in summer 2022. They have since dipped to about 12.76 million as of March 2025.