As an editor in business-to-business media, I have watched for more than 30 years as good-paying manufacturing jobs slowly disappeared from the United States toward foreign countries eager to build up their economic prospects through basic manufacturing and job creation.

It has been a year and a half since the first warnings about COVID-19 forced the United States onto an economic path that defied precedent and experience.

As a sign of the times we live in, it is hard to ride around these days without seeing signs in front of restaurants, service establishments and other types of businesses seeking applicants for immediate employment for all shifts.

In today’s rapidly changing environment, finding the right marketing message and taking the correct actions can be challenging. As a result of the pandemic, the world looks much different than it did at the beginning of 2020. Manufacturers are trying to mitigate COVID-19’s economic fallout, ensure employee and workplace safety and keep supply chains moving.

During my decades in business-to-business publishing, I have borne sad witness to the gradual export of this country’s manufacturing sector and its many jobs to overseas sources.

With the new year freshly underway, it seems a good time to gaze in the crystal ball and consider what trends will likely impact the climate for manufacturing in the U.S. and abroad during this year.

On March 16, 1926, Professor Robert H. Goddard was scurrying around a snow-covered field in Worcester, Mass. He was preparing to ignite a small rocket assembly mounted on a metal-framed “launch pad.”

Finished forgings cannot reach their intended markets without the labor of humans.

The Forging Industry Educational and Research Foundation (FIERF) works to connect educational institutions and the forging industry through future workforce development, promoting the advantages of forged products, facilitating technology transfer and promoting applicable research.

Derek Stake is the forge manager at Mid-West Forge Corporation of Cleveland, Ohio.