The idea that US manufacturing jobs could regain their prominence was a central tenant of Trump's populist message. But a look at the long-term trends indicates this is a secular decline that can't be reversed.
Let's start by looking at total manufacturing jobs.
Manufacturing jobs jumped in WWII for obvious reasons. Then, during the 1950s, they peaked a few times around the 16 million level. During the 1960s total manufacturing employment increased to median of about 18 million. They remained at this level until the 1990s, when they decreased a bit. During the last two recessions we see sharp drops, falling about 3 million in the early 2000s and again by about 2 million during the Great Recession.
This chart shows the absolute numbers. But manufacturing jobs as a percentage of total jobs have been decreasing since the early 1960s:
During the 1950s, manufacturing jobs represented between 30% and 33% of total employment. But that percentage consistently declined during the next 50 years, recently falling to its current level of slightly below 10%.
The reason? The rise of the service economy:
Service sector jobs as a percentage of all jobs started to increase from about 50% in the early 1970s to their current level of ~70%.
These charts indicate that the drop in manufacturing employment is part of a long-terms trend that is embedded in our economy. There is no way to reverse this.