These are not your mother's machines - the next generation of American manufacturing is high-tech, and skilled workers are needed to operate these advanced tools

Tony Schmitz, Professor of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee

Across America, industries are facing enormous supply chain delays, worker shortages and places to build due to several decades of offshoring and deemphasizing manufacturing research, education and training in the U.S. For example, the textile industry is experiencing a 20% worker shortage, and the metal fabrication industry expects a 400,000-worker shortage by 2024. The first decade of the 21st century alone saw U.S. manufacturing jobs decline by one-third, falling from 17 million in 2000 to below 12 million in 2010.