It has almost NOTHING to do with the trade war, the price of steel has not gone up %78 percent, import steel has only gone up %25 and that is only part of the steel being used, even if it all went up %25 in response that does in no way make the end product go up %25 as the tarrifed steel is only a small part of the whole operation.

It has a lot more to do with the extremly low un umployment rate, %3.9 percent nationally. In my experience one out of ten people dont really want a job, thats 10%, that means unemployment is so low that even people who dont want to work are being put to work (I know several first hand) and you got to pay em more than their really worth for sub-par performance and the only way to afford that is to charge more for your product or service.