I think it is already too late. This should have been done 5 years ago, at least. There is no financial incentive to do anything in the US, and the infrastructure is worse than at any previous point in time. For this to change, the Federal government should plan and start investing enormous sums of money, at least as much as China did in the previous 20 years. I don't see this happening at least during this administration, which will make this impossible for another 3 years.
Rather than the Federal government turning to central economic planning, a better approach would be to remove the artificial barriers to domestic production.
While unemployment is indeed quite low, the labor force participation rate is extremely low; much lower than even the aftermath of the great recession[0]. There are plenty of additional workers in the US, the catch is that they aren't willing to work a demanding job for poverty wages.
If more companies were willing to treat and pay their employees well there wouldn't be a labor shortage. Corporate profits have been shattering records for decades now, so it's not like the resources aren't there. Unfortunately, many believe it's easier and more cost effective to whine about folks being lazy and wait for the Fed to crash the economy and generate a fresh supply of desperate labor.
I'm not so sure about that. I suspect the mismatch in labor participation rates pre vs. post COVID is mostly accounted for in early/normal retirements. All those boomers that they were warning were going to eventually retire just happened to do it at the same time. They won't be coming back to the labor market.
Anecdotally between my parents, aunts, and uncles I have eight relatives who retired in the past two years (between that ages of 55 - 65).
That's a good point, but the low unemployment is not a great sign for the US, unfortunately. The majority of these jobs are low wage positions. Factory jobs would be far more beneficial. Unfortunately it will not happen.
