President Donald Trump has promised to bring Americans more manufacturing jobs, but experts warn that could backfire over a talent shortage.
New factories are expanding across the U.S. and manufacturing production is expected to ramp up by 2026 as new locations open and companies are enticed to invest under the Trump administration’s tax legislation, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argues. But that might not guarantee there are enough workers to do the work in what has been vowed to be a “Golden Age,” according to a Washington Post report published Friday.
Some skeptics claim that not only are there not enough skilled workers, but spending to bring in the factories is also lagging after Trump stopped the clean-energy subsidies from the Biden administration. Those subsidies helped to encourage these investments, “and many observers have doubts that all of the new foreign investment the president claims from his recent trade deals will ultimately materialize.”
A similar pattern has emerged over the workforce — and the lack of it.
“But some of the new factories are running into familiar problems: One of the signature projects of the Biden era, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing’s new computer chip plant in Phoenix, was delayed by a year because of ‘an insufficient amount of skilled workers with the specialized expertise required,’” The Post reports.
This is something AI can’t fix, although some administration officials claim it can.
“I think with AI, with automation, with so many of these factories going to be new — they’re going to be smart factories — I think we’ve got all the labor force we need,” Bessent said in an interview with Tucker Carlson in April.
The administration has also pointed to immigration and bringing back Americans “on the margins of society back into the labor force.”
Economists say it’s a “high-risk strategy that is unlikely to succeed.”
Modern manufacturing jobs do require higher education, not just a high school degree. People who leave the workforce have skills that fade; sometimes, they might be dealing with substance abuse issues or other problems that might not make them a good candidate to work with high-powered machinery.
“It’s totally unrealistic,” economist Adam Hersh with the Economic Policy Institute told The Post.
A lacking skilled workforce was the “leading bottleneck” for manufacturing, study last year found by the National Academies of Sciences.
“The number-one crisis for manufacturers was recruiting workers. And it was not the bodies, it was the skills,” said economist Susan Houseman of the Upjohn Institute, a member of the study committee.
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