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Manufacturers are giving America’s current economic direction “a big thumbs up”—but certain things must happen in 2026 for them to keep doing so, NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said in late December on “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” on FOX Business.
 
What’s going on: Approximately “70% have an optimistic outlook for their companies for the next year or so,” Timmons told show host Cheryl Casone, citing results of the NAM Q4 2025 Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey, which found manufacturers’ forecasts for their businesses improving nearly 5 percentage points from the third quarter.

• “We do have to look to 2025 and think about all the great achievements … the tax bill, regulatory certainty, energy dominance—those things have been fantastic tailwinds for manufacturers.”

Yes, but … To maintain manufacturing’s momentum, several actions must be taken in the new year, Timmons went on. These should include:

• Permitting reform, “so that we can build more plants and facilities [and] permit mines, which take 10 to 15 years to permit in this country”;
• Trade certainty, which is “the number-one concern we’re hearing from manufacturers in terms of a cost driver for the future”; and
• Sound workforce policy, which “means training and upskilling our workers … [and] an immigration policy that relies on the economic needs of this country in addition to protecting our borders,” Timmons said.

(Well-compensated) workers needed: Despite having shed approximately 80,000 jobs over the past year, manufacturing still has a dearth of some 400,000 workers.

• “We do need more workers in the sector,” Timmons said, adding that manufacturing has, on average, the highest-paying jobs of any sector in the U.S. economy.
• “There are six-figure salaries to start, in many cases. So we want to make sure that Americans know what opportunities there are in manufacturing, especially … as we grow and hopefully are able to see more investment and more job creation here in the United States.”