America's factories are booming. The problem is finding people to run them.
U.S. manufacturing hit a record $2.91 trillion in 2024, and foreign companies have poured trillions into American plants. But nearly half the jobs the industry will need by 2033 could go unfilled.
Key points
- U.S. Manufacturing value added reached a record $2.91 trillion in 2024, according to a new report by MISUMI Americas, an industrial parts supplier.
- Factory construction spending hit $235.6 billion in 2024, close to three times the $81.9 billion spent in 2021, per the U.S. Census Bureau.
- The manufacturing industry will need 3.8 million workers by 2033, and 1.9 million of those positions could go unfilled, according to The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte.
- Reshoring and foreign investment have produced more than 2 million announced U.S. Manufacturing jobs since 2010, with 88% in 2024 tied to semiconductors and electric vehicles.
- MISUMI Americas has endorsed H.R. 9097, a bill that would send American workers abroad for six to twelve months of hands-on skills training.
American manufacturing is having a moment. Output's at an all-time high, foreign companies are committing serious money to build and buy plants on U.S. Soil, and the ISM PMI, a monthly index measuring how busy purchasing managers at factories are, hit 54 in May 2026, its strongest result since 2022. A score above 50 means the sector's growing.
The numbers from MISUMI Americas, reported by The Robot Report, are striking. Factory construction spending in 2024 was $235.6 billion, close to three times the 2021 figure. Semiconductor plants and electric vehicle battery factories, both pushed along by the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, drove most of that surge. Foreign companies have now committed $2.42 trillion to U.S. Manufacturing, making it the single largest sector for foreign direct investment at more than 42% of all inbound investment. Japan alone accounts for over $819 billion of that total. If U.S. Manufacturing were its own country, it'd rank as the eighth-largest economy on earth.
We first covered the reshoring story on 21 July 2026, and the workforce numbers sitting behind it have only grown more alarming since.
Where will all the workers come from?
Nobody has a clean answer yet. The industry needs 3.8 million workers by 2033. About 2.8 million of those slots open up as older workers retire, with the remainder tied to new growth from the CHIPS Act and related legislation. Roughly 1.9 million positions could simply go unfilled. More than 65% of manufacturers already name attracting and keeping staff as their single biggest challenge.
Retention is the sharpest edge of that problem. Gen Z workers, the generation now reshaping factory floors, change jobs roughly every 2.3 years, and manufacturing turnover has topped 40% annually in some settings. Andy Sherman, senior vice president for operations and supply chain at MISUMI Americas, told The Robot Report that generation wants purpose, financial security and a visible path to grow. Vocational college enrolment has grown 20% since spring 2020, and undergraduate certificate programmes have expanded for four consecutive years. Total enrolment still sits under 1 million students nationwide, a fraction of what the industry needs.
Should the government send workers overseas to train?
That's the logic behind H.R. 9097, the American Manufacturing Revitalization Exchange Program Act. Introduced by Representative Bill Huizenga and currently before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the bill would give workers a stipend to spend six to twelve months training in Japan, Germany or South Korea, countries where advanced manufacturing training has decades of history. Dave Evans, president and CEO of MISUMI Americas, said in a statement that the next constraint for American manufacturing isn't capital: it's people with the right skills to run new facilities at full capacity.
Supporters include the National Association of Manufacturers, United Steelworkers and the American Automotive Policy Council, among others.
The capital's there. Skilled workers aren't, not yet. That gap is the real story here, and a six-month overseas stipend scheme, however promising, is a long way from closing it on its own.
