U.S. real GDP from manufacturing ($ billion/year) has been trending up not down for decades, but with manufacturing not growing as fast (partly due to outsourcing) and so shrinking on a % of GDP basis. The U.S. is the world’s second largest manufacturer in terms of $ value as of 2015.
Eventually lots of manufacturing will come back here, too - but jobs won’t. Falling costs of automation + rising labor costs in the rest of the world will drive this. There will never be more need for unskilled or semiskilled manufacturing labor in the U.S. Skilled technicians/tradespeople/craftsmen/engineers? Sure. But workers-per-unit-manufacturing-output will only go down from here on out.
