2025 was a dismal year for the manufacturing base throughout the U.S. with much of that coming from the higher tariffs policies put in place by the Trump administration
The April jobs report showed more jobs losses in manufacturing field.
According to Florida TaxWatch, in the year 2025, the U.S. manufacturing sector saw employment fall by nearly 70,000.
But during that same time period Florida manufacturing showed some resilience by only losing fewer than 3,000 manufacturing positions.
“Florida’s manufacturing sector is a $86.6 billion industry that ranks sixth in the nation in the value of exported manufactured goods, employs more than 434,000 workers, and contributes 4.62 percent of the state’s GDP — quietly outpacing both tourism and agriculture,” said TaxWatch.
These jobs include aerospace, defense, and space manufacturing firms along the Space Coast.
With some of the largest employers like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, SpaceX, and Raytheon.
TaxWatch points out there are high wages that come along with these jobs, with an average salary of $87,000 a year and several companies require only a high school diploma or equivalent.
But there are some problems currently facing Florida manufacturers.
Over half of the state’s manufacturing workforce is 45 years of age or older, and in major metros like Tampa, only ten percent of workers entering the trades are between 19 and 24 years old.
Nationally, manufacturing is on track to leave 2.1 million jobs unfilled by 2030, with a potential loss of more than $1 trillion in output. Beyond raw numbers, 73 percent of senior manufacturing leaders are preparing to retire within the next decade, and 68 percent believe at least half of their institutional knowledge will be lost permanently — a process knowledge drain that standardized training alone cannot fix.
