(Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) - Manufacturing jobs in the United States increased by 3,000 from April to May, rising from 12,836,000 to 12,839,000, according to the employment report released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That is the largest number of manufacturing jobs the U.S. economy has sustained since December 2008, according to the historical employment data published by the BLS.

In the last month of 2008, there were 12,850,000 manufacturing jobs in the United States, according to BLS. But in January 2009, the manufacturing sector lost 289,000 jobs as manufacturing employment dropped to 12,561,000.

The BLS has published the historical manufacturing employment numbers going back to 1939. Since then, manufacturing jobs in the United States peaked in June 1979, when they hit 19,553,000. In the years since that 1979 peak, they hit a low of 11,453,000 in February and March of 2011.

Since that 2011 nadir, the U.S. has added 1,386,000 manufacturing jobs to reach the 12,839,000 seen in May.

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