The U.S.-Mexico-China Manufacturing Triangle – The Globalist
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Mexican manufacturing wages remain roughly 40% lower than Chinese manufacturing wages and 88% lower than those in the United States.
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There are now more than 200 Chinese manufacturing and infrastructure investments in Mexico.
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Roughly 20% of the value of Mexican exports to the United States consists of Chinese content.
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Mexico now has a sizeable trade deficit with China, even though it has a large bilateral trade surplus with the United States. This is in part due to the duty-free export platform it provides into the United States.
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In January 2026, there were 12.59 American manufacturing workers compared to 12.74 million in February 2020, before COVID-related manufacturing job losses began.
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Notably, by December 2024, at the end of the Biden administration, U.S. manufacturing employment had climbed again to reach 12.69 million.
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However, in the first 11 months of Trump’s second term (February–December 2025), the United States has lost 91,000 manufacturing jobs.
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Meanwhile, Mexico has added roughly a total of 700,000 manufacturing jobs since 2020.
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From 2022 to 2024, U.S. auto sector employment averaged more than one million jobs, a level not seen since the early 2000s.
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However, in the second half of 2025, U.S. auto industry employment began to decline to a level of 951,000 auto manufacturing jobs in December 2025.
