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Reshoring questionable outcomes) while the skilled trades went severely understaffed.
Now, as we attempt to reshore production, it should have been obvious we can’ t simply rebuild manufacturing capacity through policy and capital investment alone. Without workers who can actually run these operations efficiently, the economic case for domestic production falls apart. Companies can build the facilities, but if labor costs are prohibitive due to productivity gaps and training overhead, or capable workers simply not existing, the math clearly favors offshore production even with increasingly severe tariffs.
Why reshoring is stalling
The recent job losses tell a story that tariff advocates didn’ t want to acknowledge though it was readily obvious to anyone with boots on the ground in heavy industry verticals: bringing manufacturing back to American soil requires more than making offshore production more expensive. It requires making domestic production truly competitive. We must invest in building a sustainable workforce capable of operating efficiently at a significant scale.
Transportation equipment manufacturing, one of the sectors hit hardest by recent job losses, exemplifies the challenge.
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