Manufacturing Week 2026 closed on Friday with a familiar headline, but the number underneath it has moved the wrong way again. The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte now project that 1.9 million U.S. manufacturing jobs will go unfilled by 2033. That figure is from the most recent Manufacturing Institute / Deloitte Skills Gap study (Manufacturing Institute / Deloitte, 2024). The 1.9M figure is the 2024 study result, not a new 2026 release. The same study projects a cumulative impact of about $1.9 trillion in unrealized economic output by 2033. The week’s events also brought thousands of plant tours, Manufacturing Day sign-ons, and a fresh round of apprenticeship commitments from large employers. For Pennsylvania CTE directors, the data lands alongside state manufacturing employment of more than 565,000. It also lands in the first week of PA Career & Technical Education Month, opened by Governor Shapiro on October 6, 2026 (Pennsylvania DCED, 2026; Office of the Governor, 2026).
The gap keeps moving in the wrong direction. The current projection is up from 1.4 million in the institute’s 2021 study, the previous cycle’s figure. That is roughly half of the roughly 3.8 million total manufacturing jobs the institute projects will need to be filled by 2033. The institute’s “Growing the Workforce” framework reports that three out of four manufacturers will struggle to attract and retain workers in 2026. The same framework reports that nearly half of all open positions in the sector could stay unfilled for more than 100 days. Manufacturing is no longer just competing for workers. It is competing for the high-school students who would become those workers (Manufacturing Institute, 2026).
Pennsylvania manufacturing is the state’s largest industry by GDP. It accounts for more than 10 percent of the state economy. That gives the national 1.9-million number a concrete local hook. Even a 1 percent share of the gap, applied to PA’s industrial mix, points to thousands of unfilled jobs inside the state by the end of the decade. Manufacturing Week 2026 included DCED-facilitated plant tours in Allegheny, Berks, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lehigh, and Philadelphia counties. Governor Shapiro’s October 6 proclamation declared Manufacturing Month (Office of the Governor, 2026). The proclamation cited the state’s 12,500 manufacturing firms and 565,600 manufacturing employees (PA Department of Community & Economic Development, 2026).
The industry’s response is visible at the plant door. The Manufacturing Institute reports that Manufacturing Day 2026 (October 3) and Manufacturing Week 2026 (October 5 to 9) involved thousands of U.S. manufacturers hosting student and educator tours. The institute refreshed its “Student Perceptions of Manufacturing” research in 2025. That research found that after one plant visit, nearly 80 percent of students said they would be more likely to consider manufacturing as a career. The institute treats that finding as the single strongest lever for moving the K-12 pipeline (Manufacturing Institute, 2025). That lever is available to nearly every PA CTE manufacturing program. Most Pennsylvania industrial counties host at least one Manufacturing Day event every October, including Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, Northampton, Allegheny, Erie, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Dauphin, and Cumberland. Sign-ons are typically posted to mfgday.com in early September.
PhillyCTE’s read: the 1.9-million number is not the most important thing in the 2026 release. The most important thing is that the gap is widening year over year. The most important thing is that the K-12 pipeline is contracting. And the most important thing is that Perkins V’s local application cycle for 2027–28 opens within weeks. CTE directors who want to move the local trajectory have a narrower window than the national headline suggests. They also have a wider set of levers than most PA boards have been told to use. The state-level levers are underused. Those levers include Perkins-funded equipment refresh, OER manufacturing curriculum adoption, articulation with community-college credit-by-exam programs, and RAPs registered with the PA Department of Labor & Industry. The 2027–28 local applications are the right venue to put them on the record.
What this means for your program
Action 1 — Add a documented plant-tour hook to your FY27 recruiting plan. Identify one Manufacturing Day 2027 host site within 30 miles of your program by September 2027. Register your students on mfgday.com, and run a pre- and post-test for career interest. After a single plant visit, about 80 percent of surveyed students said they would be more likely to consider manufacturing as a career (Manufacturing Institute, 2025). The pre/post test is the lowest-cost entry point and can be documented for Perkins CLNA Section 2 (career exploration and development). For your closest 2027 host site, check mfgday.com in early September and confirm with your county’s DCED Manufacturing PA liaison.
Action 2 — Re-anchor one equipment lab to a Perkins-approved manufacturing credential, and tie it to a documented industry partner. NIMS and MSSC credentials both have updated 2026 standards. NIMS is the National Institute for Metalworking Skills. MSSC is the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council. Both are Perkins-allowable. Both have an approved regional assessor network in PA. Action 2 is a defensible budget item for any board that asks why manufacturing programs need a five-axis CNC retrofit or a PLC lab upgrade.
Action 3 — Pull the 2026 gap number into your next board CTE report as a labor-market anchor. Cite the institute’s projection to one decimal place (1.9 million by 2033). Name the source (Manufacturing Institute / Deloitte 2026 Skills Gap in Manufacturing report). Pair it with the most recent PA Department of Labor & Industry Occupational Employment statistics for your county. Boards trust named numbers and dated sources. Vague claims about the gap do not survive a finance committee question.
Source: https://www.themanufacturinginstitute.org/research/the-skills-gap-in-manufacturing/
