Monopoly919 The pandemic hit the U.S. manufacturing industry hard with nearly a 1.5 million job losses. So, it stands to reason that as we move toward recovery, there will be workers to fill the positions opening up, however the story is not so simple. According to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics, manufacturers are yet to recover 41% of the jobs lost due to the pandemic, leaving more than half a million open manufacturing jobs. Even before the pandemic, Deloitte research projected that 2.4 million factory jobs could remain unfilled through 2028. And indeed, The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey continues to find that attracting and retaining a quality workforce is one of the top business challenges for manufacturers. In this current environment, many manufacturers are also investing in and making the move to becoming true smart factories, by collecting and connecting production data, analyzing the data to drive better insights and augmenting human intelligence with machine intelligence.