On a recent “People Tech Talk” podcast with Ali Manki of Hypergrowth Consulting, our President and COO Mike Dixon was asked where Hoops HR sees growth next year. His answer was manufacturing and industrial services, and defense most of all.
“…with that manufacturing and industrial services space, particularly defense. That’s where we’re seeing a lot of real reindustrialization in North America.”
Then Mike added, “stuff is coming back that we haven’t done on this continent, at least in the US and Canada in decades.”
We realize that’s a pretty big claim to make based on what we see alone. So we checked it against data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), McKinsey, Deloitte, the Department of War and the Government of Canada. Here’s what we found, and what it means for your business, whether you make things or not.
Is Reindustrialization Really Happening?
At the big-picture level, are we really seeing our country rebuild and expand its industrial capacity across sectors?
Yes. Reindustrialization is at work, and factory jobs are growing again, but slowly. What’s most interesting is that the need for workers is growing even faster.
In August 2026, U.S. manufacturing added 16,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That puts the sector up 58,000 jobs since its recent low in December 2025. Two of the biggest gainers were machinery and fabricated metal products, which added 6,000 jobs each. Still, over the full past year, the average monthly change in manufacturing jobs was close to zero.
The bigger signal is job openings. The BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) shows manufacturers had 522,000 job openings in August 2026. A year earlier, they had 416,000. That is about 25% more open roles in one year.
Companies want more people than they can hire. If you’re in this space, the big question is how to get ahead of that headcount gap.
For context, according to Deloitte, the U.S. had 17.2 million manufacturing jobs in 2000. After years of heavy offshoring and other factors, that number dropped to 12.7 million by September 2025. So “boom” may be the wrong word for what we’re seeing. “Rebuild” is much more like it.
Is Reshoring Really Happening?
Alright, so these sectors are growing. But is some of that just new demand, like more defense spending? Or is work actually coming back from overseas?
Yes. Reshoring is real, but it is uneven, and it is moving slower than the headlines make it sound.
The Reshoring Initiative tracks companies that bring production back to the U.S., along with foreign companies that build here. In 2024, those moves announced 244,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs. Since 2010, the total is over 2 million. And 88% of the 2024 jobs were in high-tech or medium-high-tech work.
The 2026 USA Reshoring Survey shows more companies are in fact acting on it. In 2026, 36% of the product makers surveyed had reshored or were actively reshoring, up from 29% in 2025. And 63% of them plan U.S. capital spending in 2026 or 2027. The top thing holding companies back? Policy uncertainty, named by 57%.
Now for the reality check. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates it would take about $2 trillion to build enough U.S. capacity to replace imports of key strategic goods. That takes time, money and energy, and factories alone won’t get us there. The right workers have to be ready, in the right places, at the right time.
That’s where the people side comes in. Deloitte expects most growth to land in high-value, tech-heavy work, since low-cost assembly is still cheaper overseas. Those are the hardest jobs to fill here. In one survey Deloitte cites, 30% of manufacturers said they would reshore if skilled workers were plentiful.
So what about AI and robots? They’ll help, and manufacturers are investing in them. But Deloitte’s 2026 Manufacturing Industry Outlook still expects more than 81% of manufacturing task hours to stay human-driven. Automation changes the skills the work needs. The need for skilled people stays.
Here’s the hard truth: for almost a third (30%) of these companies, the missing piece is people.
Is the U.S. Defense Growth Real?
We see defense growing with our own clients. Is that just us?
Yes. It’s real, and it’s moving faster than any other part of the picture.
At a September 4 House hearing, the Department of War’s top industrial base official said the defense industrial base has about 400,000 unfilled skilled-trade jobs today, a number that could reach 2.5 million within a decade, according to DoD News.
The money is moving, too. In late September, the Pentagon awarded Raytheon a multiyear contract worth up to $20.7 billion to nearly double production of one of its missiles, according to Defense News.
And it’s not just a U.S. story. Canada’s first Defence Industrial Strategy, released in February 2026, aims to add 125,000 defence sector jobs over the next decade. Canada has also committed to raise defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.
So when Mike says we’re seeing this growth with our own clients, the national numbers back him up. And he adds which roles we’re seeing the most in demand: “I think we’ve got a good use case in helping folks find master electricians, welders, other fabricators and assemblers, so that I think is just a great opportunity and it feels good, right?”
It’s also work that means something to Mike, and to all of us at Hoops: “You’re putting people together that are building something tangible.”
If You Work in Manufacturing or Defense
The takeaway if you’re in manufacturing, industrial services or defense? Get ready to compete harder for the same people.
Defense contractors, shipyards, missile plants, engine makers and your shop are all looking for welders, machinists, electricians, maintenance techs and quality inspectors. There are only so many to go around. Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute project U.S. manufacturers could need up to 3.8 million new workers between 2024 and 2033. Up to 1.9 million of those jobs could go unfilled.
Here are the changes you’ll probably see soon in your people, recruiting and HR (if you haven’t already):
- Offers will move faster. A good welder will get more job offers, and get them faster, sometimes several in the same week. A slow interview process will likely lose them.
- Pay will keep rising. If you haven’t checked your wages against your local market lately, you likely won’t be competitive enough to attract (and keep) the talent you need to stay in the game.
- Your best people will get calls. Recruiters from bigger contractors will reach out to your top performers with better pay, benefits and growth options.
- Supervisors will be scarce. Every new line and every new shift needs a leader, and a good one. Middle managers are some of the hardest roles to fill well.
This is why at Hoops, we start every search by showing clients the market first. As Mike shared on the podcast: “We’re going to show you who you’re competing against in the market. We’re going to show you what we think you should pay for this role.”
You cannot win a talent race if you do not know who else is running in it.
Other Industries Are Still Affected
Even if you don’t make things, this still affects you. Your team is part of the talent pool factories will recruit from.
When manufacturers can’t find enough trained workers, they look for people they can train. Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland points to a few likely places: workers in lower-paying fields like retail and food service, young people just starting out, and adults who are not working right now.
That means a few things for employers outside the industry:
- Hourly and frontline staff will have new options. A plant that pays well and trains on the job is a real draw for retail or restaurant workers looking for career growth.
- Trades roles get pricier everywhere. Hospitals, schools, property managers and data centers need electricians and maintenance techs too, and the list goes on.
- Your “good enough” pay may stop being good enough. Wage pressure in one sector tends to spread to its neighbors.
- Retention matters more than ever. Replacing someone costs even more when the market is tight.
The best time to plan for this is before your people start getting those calls.
Grow Your Leaders Now
You can’t hire every leader you need. Growing your own may be your best strategy and your biggest competitive advantage.
Most great supervisors start as top frontline workers. But we all know a great welder doesn’t become a great shift lead overnight (more on that here). It takes time, training and coaching.
Skipping that step costs you (we cover the cost of bad or unprepared managers here.) In a tight labor market, poor management drives up turnover, and turnover drives up costs.
The good news is that most of this is avoidable with the right leadership training. But it takes real work.
On the podcast, Mike shared: “I think one of the things that you struggle with as a leader is getting the right team aligned around the right processes on the right systems and just relentlessly focus.”
He also shared a lesson from growing Hoops: “…without really tight processes, it’s really hard to know how good people are.”
The same goes for leadership pipelines. Without a clear way to spot and develop future leaders, you’re guessing, and guessing gets expensive when great people are hard to find.
Six Things to Do This Quarter
This can feel like a lot, so start with baby steps:
- Build your pipeline before you need it. Connect with trade schools, veteran programs and training centers now, and get a referral program in place. More tips here.
- List your critical roles. Which jobs would hurt most if they sat open for 90 days? Read more about how to identify your critical roles here.
- Check your pay against the market. Compare what nearby employers, including defense and industrial sites, pay for the same work. We can help with this too.
- Speed up your hiring. If it takes more than two weeks to go from application to offer for skilled hourly roles, it’s too long.
- Name your future leaders. Pick the frontline people who could run a shift or team in the next two years. Tell them, and give them a plan. Our succession planning guide can help here.
- Train your managers. Coaching, feedback and clear expectations are the cheapest retention tools you have. Read more here.
You Don’t Have to Get Ahead Alone
If you want a partner for any of this, we’d love to help. Our specialty is hiring and scaling talent, and manufacturing, industrial services and defense are some of our fastest-growing areas.
Recruiting for skilled and hard-to-fill roles. From master electricians and welders to the leaders who run their teams, and everything in between. Mike describes our model this way: “…we used to say software is a service. Now we say it’s service is a software.”
Our AI-driven platform handles sourcing, screening and market data, and a professional recruiter guides every search. As Mike put it: “We are helping provide input and feedback on candidates, but a human being is still in the decision loop. That is critical.”
Leadership training and coaching. We work with executives, managers and new supervisors to build the skills that keep teams engaged and together.
Succession and talent planning. We help you spot your future leaders now and build a clear plan to get them ready.
The reindustrialization of North America is real. The companies that plan for the talent side of it now will be the ones ready when the work shows up. Reach out to Hoops HR to start the conversation.
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