U.S. Manufacturing Hits $2.91 Trillion All-Time High

U.S. manufacturing hit a record $2.91 trillion in 2024, and the momentum has continued: the ISM Manufacturing PMI reached 54 in May, its strongest reading since 2022. 

Factory construction spending more than doubled from 2021-2024. And, foreign companies have committed $2.42 trillion to U.S. manufacturing, more than to any other sector in the United States, according to MISUMI Americas’ The Rise of U.S. Manufacturing report.

“The investment case for American manufacturing has never been stronger — record output, a historic construction cycle, trillions in committed foreign capital. What we see with our customers every day is that the next constraint isn't capital. It's having enough people with the right advanced skills to run these new facilities at full capacity. The good news is that American students are already moving toward skilled trades and technical training. H.R. 9097 builds directly on that momentum by sending workers to learn from the countries — Japan, Germany, South Korea — that have spent decades perfecting advanced manufacturing training and bringing that expertise home,” says Dave Evans, president and CEO, MISUMI Americas and CEO, Fictiv.

Key takeaways:

• $2.91 trillion: U.S. manufacturing value added in 2024, an all-time nominal record. This single sector would rank as the world’s eighth-largest economy if it stood alone, ahead of France and just behind the United Kingdom. The figure reflects current, not inflation-adjusted, dollars, so part of the gain comes from manufacturers producing more goods and part comes from higher prices.
• 54 PMI: the ISM Manufacturing PMI reading for May 2026, the strongest since May 2022 and a clear signal of expansion. The index spent most of 2025 below the 50-point threshold that separates growth from contraction, making this a meaningful reversal. New orders, production, and order backlogs all expanded that month, the broadest improvement in factory activity in roughly four years.
• $235.6 billion: peak annual factory construction spending in 2024, nearly triple the roughly $81.9 billion spent in 2021. Semiconductor fabs and EV battery plants, fueled by the CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act, drove the majority of that increase. The pace has since moderated to roughly $196 billion by January, though spending remains more than double pre-boom levels.
• $2.42 trillion: cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) in U.S. manufacturing, led by Japan, Canada, and Germany. Manufacturing is now the single largest sector for inbound foreign investment in the country, representing more than 42% of all FDI in the United States. Japan alone accounts for over $819 billion of that total, more than any other country invests in any single U.S. industry.
• 2 million-plus: reshoring and FDI jobs announced since 2010, including a record 364,000 in a single year, 2022. The vast majority of recent announcements, 88% in 2024, are in high or medium-high technology manufacturing sectors such as semiconductors, electronics, and electric vehicles. Roughly 1.7 million of those announced jobs have already been filled.
• 3.8 million: additional manufacturing workers the industry will need by 2033, with 1.9 million of those positions at risk of going unfilled without action. Of that 3.8 million, roughly 2.8 million comes from workers retiring and the remainder from new growth, including jobs tied directly to the CHIPS Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. More than 65% of manufacturers already cite attracting and retaining talent as their single biggest business challenge.
• 20% growth since Spring 2020: enrollment at high-vocational community colleges, a workforce already responding to the opportunity. Undergraduate certificate programs have grown for four consecutive years, evidence that students are choosing faster, skills-focused pathways into manufacturing careers. Even so, total enrollment at these institutions remains well under one million students nationwide, a fraction of the workforce the industry will need to recruit and train by 2033.
• What the data also shows is that the workforce has not yet scaled to match it. Nearly 2.8 million of the 3.8 million workers needed through 2033 comes from retiring employees, replacing the current workforce, not just expanding it. There were 409,000 open manufacturing positions as of August 2025, and 65% of manufacturers cite attracting and retaining skilled talent as their top challenge.
• Enrollment at high-vocational community colleges is up nearly 20% since Spring 2020, and undergraduate certificate programs have grown for four consecutive years. The pipeline is moving in the right direction — it simply needs to move faster and reach deeper into advanced, specialized skills that take years to build domestically but already exist abroad.