Inherent in the promise of onshoring is the promise of job creation, but that in itself is a challenge. U.S. manufacturing has lost a third of its workforce since its 1979 peak, and filling vacant manufacturing jobs has been a challenge for years.
The Manufacturing Institute reports that 2.8 million workers are aging out of the manufacturing workforce, and over the past 12 months, industrial leaders averaged 500,000 unfilled jobs. The future could be just as bleak: projections show that nearly two million manufacturing jobs will go unfilled over the next decade. All this is happening without factoring in policy-driven pushes to reshore operations, which would drastically increase the number of roles in need of workers.
Though the manufacturing industry in the U.S. is lean, let’s not forget that manufacturing is still a $2 trillion industry. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, every dollar spent in U.S. manufacturing generates a total impact of $2.64 on the broader economy, making it one of the most powerful economic multipliers across all industries. And with only an eighth of China’s manufacturing workforce, that kind of influence speaks volumes about the innovation and efficiency happening on U.S. soil.
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