U.S. Manufacturing Faces Widening Skills Gap and Could Leave Up To 2 Million Jobs Unfilled Over the Next Decade

• U.S. manufacturing faces a widening skills and jobs gap over the next decade, with the sector needing to fill 3.8 million jobs by 2033. However, up to 1.9 million could go unfilled.

• Failing to fill open manufacturing jobs could hurt company growth prospects and diminish U.S. manufacturing competitiveness globally.

• Manufacturing currently has over 500,000 open jobs and has struggled to get below that number for years, even as overall unemployment remains low.

• Highly skilled roles like engineers, data scientists, and industrial maintenance techs are in high demand with lots of openings.

• Over half of manufacturers say flexible work arrangements are key to attracting and retaining workers, whether that's shift-swapping or gig-style part-time production work.