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A survey of 250 manufacturing decisionmakers at US companies with more than 1000 employees, commissioned by BigRep and conducted by Atomik Research in March 2026, found that 79 percent have already brought production back inhouse or are actively in the process. Only eight percent haven’ t yet evaluated it. The direction is set.

What isn’ t set is the workforce. Among manufacturers who haven’ t yet fully transitioned, 22 percent cited a lack of skilled staff to operate new equipment as a primary barrier. That figure sits alongside two others of the same weight: cost of equipment( 25 percent) and integration time( 22 percent).

Money isn’ t the constraint. Seventy-three percent of respondents reported that their capital equipment budget had increased from last year. Checks are being written. What’ s missing is the workforce to run what those checks are buying.

Large-format additive manufacturing, for example, handles work that would traditionally require highly skilled toolmakers or machinists, such as jigs, fixtures, custom tooling, and lowvolume end-use parts

The problem isn’ t new. Reshoring is just exposing it

The skills shortage in US manufacturing has been building for over a decade. Offshore production masked the problem. When your components come from a supplier in Vietnam or Mexico, the operators running those production lines are somebody else’ s workforce problem.

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