Thursday, March 4, 2021 The gap between jobs needing to be filled and the skilled talent pool capable of filling them continues to grow wider in many industries, particularly in the U.S. manufacturing industry. The ability to retain labor from abroad is essential to closing this gap, helping to replace an aging workforce, and infusing high skills into the market — boosting innovation and technological change, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s 2016 Since 2020, and following former President Donald Trump’s immigration actions on the heels of the COVID-19 outbreak, however, the inflow of labor from abroad has nearly ground to a halt. Yet, the search for skilled talent remains the top concern for 89 percent of executives in manufacturing businesses. The manufacturing industry continues to face unique challenges, according to Deloitte’s