American manufacturing is attracting renewed investment. Companies are reconsidering where products are made, expanding domestic capacity and bringing some production closer to home. However, the reshoring workforce needed to support that growth may prove just as important as the factories, equipment and technology themselves.

Because bringing manufacturing back to the United States is one challenge.

Finding enough people to make it work is another.

Reshoring Is Creating New Opportunity

The momentum behind reshoring is real.

According to the 2026 USA Reshoring Survey from the Reshoring Initiative, 36% of surveyed original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) had reshored or were actively engaged in additional reshoring in 2026, compared with 29% in 2025.

Meanwhile, 63% of OEMs surveyed said they planned U.S. capital expenditures in 2026 or 2027 to support reshoring or other domestic expansion.

Those investments can mean more than new buildings.

They can mean new production lines, machinery, automation, suppliers and expanded operations. Ultimately, however, each investment also creates a need for people.

That is where the challenge becomes more complicated.

The Reshoring Workforce Is Already Under Pressure

The same Reshoring Initiative survey that showed growing domestic investment also revealed a significant workforce constraint.

Among respondents, 66% described hiring technicians—including welders, machinists and electrical or chemical technicians—as either very difficult or at crisis levels. Another 60% said the same about maintenance and repair technicians.

Think about what that means.

A company can invest millions of dollars in a facility. It can purchase advanced equipment and automate production. It can secure customers and create additional capacity.

Yet somebody still has to install the equipment.

Somebody has to operate it.

Somebody has to maintain it.

And when something stops working, somebody has to know how to fix it.

Capital creates capacity. People turn capacity into production.

As reshoring expands, building a strong reshoring workforce will therefore require more than simply posting jobs after a new facility, production line or expansion is ready to launch.

U.S. Manufacturing Is Not Competing for Talent Alone

The challenge becomes even more significant when we look beyond manufacturing.

Across the United States, major investments are also being made in data centers, semiconductor facilities, energy projects and infrastructure. Many of those projects require some of the same skilled workers manufacturers are trying to hire.

Electricians. Welders. HVAC technicians. Engineers. Maintenance professionals. Controls specialists. Technicians.

In its 2026 Engineering and Construction Industry Outlook, Deloitte noted that large-scale projects involving data centers, energy storage and semiconductors are expected to place additional pressure on skilled labor pools. The report also points to projections of a potential shortage of more than two million skilled craft professionals by 2028 if current trends continue.

That creates an important change in the talent market.

A manufacturer looking for an electrician may not simply be competing against the manufacturer down the road. That company could also be competing with a data center project, semiconductor facility, energy project or major construction initiative.

The competition for skilled talent is becoming increasingly interconnected.

Technology Is Changing Manufacturing Workforce Needs

Automation is an important part of the solution. Advanced manufacturing technology can improve productivity, increase precision and allow companies to accomplish more with their existing workforce.

However, automation also changes the skills employers need.

Modern equipment still requires people who can install, program, monitor, troubleshoot and maintain it.

The mechanic of yesterday may increasingly need digital diagnostic skills. Maintenance technicians may work with sensors, robotics and connected systems. Manufacturing engineers may work alongside automation and data systems.

We explored part of this shift in The Jobs Behind AI: Who Will Build the Future?. The growth of AI and other advanced technologies depends on a much larger physical workforce than many people realize.

The same principle applies to reshoring.

More technology does not necessarily make reshoring workforce planning less important. In many cases, it makes finding the right skills even more important.

Manufacturing Employment Shows Encouraging Signs

The latest employment data provide some reason for optimism.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that manufacturing employment increased by 16,000 jobs in August 2026 and was up by 58,000 jobs from its recent low in December 2025.

Machinery manufacturing and fabricated metal product manufacturing each added approximately 6,000 jobs in August.

Those numbers do not erase the skilled labor challenge. However, they reinforce an important point: manufacturing workforce demand is not simply a future issue.

Companies are making workforce decisions now.

Workforce Planning Should Start With Investment Planning

Traditionally, workforce planning can happen relatively late in an expansion.

A company approves an investment. Equipment is ordered. Production targets are established. A launch date approaches.

Then hiring begins.

In today’s labor market, that sequence can create unnecessary risk.

If a company knows it will need maintenance technicians, engineers, machinists or other difficult-to-find talent six months from now, waiting until those positions become urgent may already be too late.

Instead, workforce questions should become part of the investment conversation much earlier.

What skills will the new operation require?

Which positions will be hardest to fill?

Can current employees be trained for some of those roles?

Where will new talent come from?

Which skills are also in demand from other industries in the region?

And how long will it realistically take to find the people required?

Those are no longer simply HR questions.

They are business planning questions.

For companies expanding domestic production, early reshoring workforce planning can help identify talent constraints before they become operational constraints.

The Reshoring Opportunity Depends on Execution

Reshoring has the potential to strengthen domestic supply chains, create opportunities for American workers and bring production closer to customers.

The 2026 USA Reshoring Survey found that OEMs already experiencing reshoring benefits reported improvements that included faster speed to market, better fulfillment and on-time delivery, and logistics savings.

Those are meaningful advantages.

However, the success of reshoring will not be measured only by announcements, capital expenditures or square footage.

It will ultimately be measured by what American companies can produce.

And production requires people.

That means manufacturers should think about workforce capacity with the same urgency they apply to equipment, facilities, technology and supply chains.

At Contract Professionals, Inc. (CPI), we have spent more than four decades connecting organizations with skilled professionals across manufacturing, engineering, technical and other specialized disciplines. That experience has reinforced something technology continues to prove rather than replace:

Investment creates opportunity. Technology creates capability. People make it possible.

As more manufacturing comes home, America’s ability to develop, attract and deploy the workforce behind it may become one of the most important parts of making “Made in America” work.