US electronics manufacturers are thriving and seeing a growth in orders. All categories of businesses, from industrial automation to military security and defense electronics, are doing well because of an increase in manufacturing done domestically instead of overseas, as well as more money being put into electronic equipment for the military. The only thing holding these companies back is finding qualified workers. There are not many competent personnel to recruit for electronics manufacturing. This is causing businesses to automate any operation that has previously been completed by low-skill workers. Tasks such as PCB inspection or component assembly or screwdriving can all be automated with the many technologies now available. The cost of automation has decreased dramatically over the last 10 years, and the availability of robots and co-bots (human assisted automation) as well as ease of programming have made it much more affordable for most firms. It is no longer just feasible or cost-effective to hire US workers to do manual assembly since there are robots and automated equipment that can complete these operations. Certainly, there is an initial investment associated with this approach, but afterward the process control, quality improvements, and ability to expand the work are obvious. Automated equipment includes AOI (automated optical inspection), robotic screw drivers, robotic or selective soldering machines, and odd-form placement machines for doing placement and insertion of the last few odd-form components on PCBs.