Karl W. Smith, Columnist

Trump’s Economy Is Looking Better for Trump’s Voters

New data show manufacturing jobs are still growing in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

December 9, 2019 at 10:30 AM UTC

Karl W. Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Previously, he was vice president for federal policy at the Tax Foundation and assistant professor of economics at the University of North Carolina.

Michigan voters and the man they made president.
Photographer: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images North America

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After booming in 2017 and 2018, employment growth in manufacturing all but stopped this year. And the numbers were even worse in the swing states crucial to President Donald Trump’s re-election hopes: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

As it turns out, however, reports of the death of manufacturing jobs in the Rust Belt were slightly exaggerated. New data paint a rosier picture.