MISUMI Americas, a specification-driven sourcing partner for mechanical components and assemblies, today releases its report "The Rise of U.S. Manufacturing," which notes that domestic manufacturing value hit a record $2.91 trillion in 2024, and the momentum has continued: the ISM Manufacturing PMI reached 54 in May 2026, its strongest reading since 2022.

The report also noted that factory-construction spending more than doubled from 2021 to 2024. And foreign companies have committed $2.42 trillion to U.S. manufacturing—more than to any other sector in the U.S.

That investment is now bumping into a problem it can't buy its way out of, says MISUMI: a workforce shortage that predates it and will outlast it..."the single largest constraint on how far this growth cycle can go," they surmise. 

We wanted to learn more, so we connected with Dave Evans, MISUMI Americas president & CEO. Take a look...

AW: What do you find most surprising / interesting in the report?

Evans: The number that stopped me was the foreign direct-investment figure. There’s currently $2.42 trillion committed to U.S. manufacturing, more than to any other sector in the country. Japan alone accounts for over $819 billion of that. These are long-term commitments from the countries that have spent decades building the world's most sophisticated production systems. They're choosing to build here.

What makes that surprising is the timing. This investment is flowing in during a period when the narrative around the resurgence of American manufacturing is still pretty skeptical. The data tells a very different story. Growth right now has a clear ceiling, and that’s workforce. We have 409,000 open manufacturing positions and a projection of 1.9 million jobs potentially going unfilled by 2033. That gap is the defining challenge of this growth cycle. 

AW: How does automation factor into the workforce-development theme of the report?

Evans: Automation and workforce development are often framed as opposites, as if more robots means fewer workers needed. The reality our customers are living every day is the opposite. The more automated a facility becomes, the more it needs workers who understand robotics, programmable controls, precision systems, and how to troubleshoot when something goes wrong at 3 a.m. These are skills that take years to develop.

That's why the workforce gap the report identifies is so concentrated in advanced, high-tech sectors. These are also the most automated environments. When we talk about the 3.8 million workers the industry needs by 2033, a significant portion of those roles didn't exist in their current form ten years ago.

The automation curve has outpaced the training pipeline, and closing that gap is where bills like H.R. 9097 come in. Sending American workers to train in Germany, Japan and South Korea, countries where automation and workforce development have been deeply integrated for decades, is a direct response to that mismatch.

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AW: What role does automation play in strengthening the country's long-term manufacturing competitiveness?

Evans: It's foundational, but only if we build the human layer on top of it correctly. Factory-construction spending nearly tripled between 2021 and 2024. We’re building highly automated, highly sophisticated facilities at a historic pace. The ISM PMI hitting 54 in May 2026 tells us these facilities are increasingly operational and expanding. But a factory running at 60% capacity because you can't find enough people with the right skills to run it leaves an enormous amount of value on the table.

Long-term competitiveness comes from automation and workforce development advancing together. The countries we're competing with, and in many cases partnering with, have understood that for a long time. They've built integrated systems where technical training, apprenticeship, and industry certification are woven into how workers enter and advance in manufacturing careers.

That's the model we need to accelerate here, and the encouraging signal is that students are already responding. The pipeline is moving in the right direction. It just needs to move faster.

AW: What do you find most encouraging in the report about the near future of domestic manufacturing?

Evans: The student-enrollment data. It's easy to look at a 3.8 million worker gap and feel like the problem is insurmountable. But when you see that undergraduate certificate programs have grown for four consecutive years, and that community-college enrollment in vocational tracks is up nearly 20% since spring 2020, you realize the workforce is already beginning to self-correct. Students are making rational choices, they're seeing opportunity in skilled trades and technical manufacturing careers and moving toward it.

The investment cycle is real, the construction boom is real, and now the workforce signal is beginning to catch up. The job in front of us is to accelerate that pipeline—to make sure the training leads to the right skills, in the right sectors, and that workers can get there faster. That's exactly what structures like H.R. 9097 are designed to do.

At MISUMI Americas, we try to do our part as well. We sponsored 48 FIRST Robotics teams last year and work with 109 college teams and departments across 49 universities, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on product design, tooling, CNC, injection molding and more, with research partnerships at places like MIT.

The knowledge transfer that produces great manufacturing engineers starts early and runs deep. We're building on momentum that's already there.