Manufacturing Wants Workers: Nearly 4 in 10 Jobs Could Go Unfilled Without Immigration Reform

If you talk with leaders in U.S. manufacturing, they’ll tell you the same thing over and over: good workers are getting harder to find, and that’s putting American factories at risk. In response, the National Association of Manufacturers just threw its support behind a new immigration proposal called the Dignity Act of 2025, a bipartisan bill aimed at creating a legal way for some undocumented workers to stay and work in the United States.

At its core, the Dignity Act isn’t about giving people citizenship overnight. Instead, it would let undocumented immigrants who’ve been in the country for more than five years apply for a temporary legal status that lets them live and work here lawfully, provided they follow rules like passing a criminal background check and paying taxes they owe. They would also need to make designated payments over several years as part of the program.

Why employers care so much is straight forward. Right now, manufacturers in many states are struggling to fill open jobs. According to NAM, there are over 400,000 manufacturing positions open at any time roles companies say they simply cannot fill with the workforce they have now. NAM also projects the industry will need about 3.8 million workers over the next decade, with roughly half of that likely to remain unfilled without changes in immigration and workforce policy.

Most people think of manufacturing as factory work building cars, machinery or appliances and it really is all of that and more. Manufacturing still makes up about 10 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, captures more than half of private sector research and development, and supports communities across the country that rely on stable jobs.

But the labor pool is tightening. Part of that is a demographic story: fewer native born workers are entering the workforce, and as people retire, there just aren’t enough replacement workers for growing sectors. Immigration has long been one way the labor force grows, compensating for those declines.

Immigrant labor already plays a major role in U.S. industry. Nationwide, immigrants make up about 19 percent of the civilian labor force and in manufacturing the share is similar, with nearly one in five workers in durable goods manufacturing and more than one in five in nondurable goods manufacturing being foreign born. Around 3.7 million immigrants work in manufacturing nationwide, showing how deeply tied the sector is to immigrant labor.

The importance of immigrant workers goes beyond numbers. They show up in jobs that are physically demanding, technically skilled and essential to production lines and supply chains. Independent research has found that when immigration flows slow, job growth in sectors that rely heavily on immigrant labor, like manufacturing and construction, tends to slow too.

Support for the Dignity Act is not just coming from manufacturers. The bill has over 35 members of Congress as co-sponsors and backing from a wide range of business groups, including construction and retail associations. Even groups like the National Association of Home Builders have endorsed it, citing similar labor shortages in housing and construction.

In speeches and press statements, supporters emphasize that the bill is meant to blend workforce needs with law and accountability. “Yes, they broke the law,” Rep. Maria Salazar, a Republican co-author of the bill, said in explaining the proposal, “but someone gave them a job because they needed those workers. Workers who are still needed today.”

Critics of immigration reform often focus on border security or the idea of rewarding people who entered the country unlawfully. The Dignity Act tries to address those concerns by including enforcement measures at the border and conditions for eligibility, but the politics remain thorny.

Still, for factory floor managers and business owners watching their workforce shrink, the discussion has moved from theoretical to urgent. As one executive put it in a recent industry statement, “We need more workers to invest more, innovate more, build more, and export more American made products.”

The manufacturing community sees immigration reform not as a luxury but as a necessity a way to fill jobs that Americans are not filling quickly enough on their own, keep factories running, and maintain U.S. competitiveness in a global economy.