Manufacturing strongholds start to feel the tariff squeeze

For thousands of Americans, “Liberation Day” meant liberation from their jobs. The Trump administration’s plan to bring manufacturing back to the US seems to be backfiring, at least in the short term.

Companies from Michigan to Pennsylvania, from car companies to a tabletop game maker, are citing tariffs as the driving force behind their 2025 layoffs.

Automakers seem to be the first adopters of these tariff-inspired layoffs. Volvo Group, Stellantis (maker of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep) and General Motors all announced job cuts in the past few months.

Volvo Group cut 800 jobs at plants in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. Stellantis laid off 900 people in Michigan and Indiana. And General Motors temporarily laid off 200 workers in Detroit.

Volvo told Reuters that uncertainty following the tariffs is slumping demand for heavy-duty truck orders. Stellantis blamed a tariff-caused pause in production at its Canadian and Mexican operations for temporary layoffs of US workers.

General Motors’ layoffs span the northern border, affecting workers in Motor City and Ingersoll, Ontario, in Canada. The company attributed the need to downsize to a cooling of the EV market. However, according to a latest Kelley Blue Book report, EV sales actually increased 10.6% year over year, and according to Cox Automotive, General Motors nearly doubled its EV sales last quarter compared to a year ago, so, you know, not quite passing the smell test.

Beyond the car industry, Cleveland-Cliffs, a steel manufacturer in Ohio, eliminated 600 jobs in Michigan and 630 in Minnesota as it pauses some plant operations and two iron ore mines. The company cited steel tariffs and weakening demand from the automotive sector as key factors.

Tariff chaos jumps from the garage to the boardgame closet. Earlier this month, Greater than Games, a St. Louis-based card and board game supplier, directly called out the international tariffs in its press release about a reduction in staff and suspension of all new projects.

The country seems on track to meet Goldman Sachs’s prediction: that the tariffs would create 100,000 manufacturing jobs, but kill 500,000 jobs across multiple other industries.