Verco Manufacturing is doing exactly the kind of work that President Trump says America needs more of.

It starts with raw steel and turns it into the furniture you see in schools.

We're going to bend it, manipulate it, spot-weld it to make case goods.

Teachers' desks, opposite administration desk, vertical lateral file cabinets, all metal bookcases, things like that.

That's Steve Presley, Vice President and General Manager. He and his brother both started at age

16 when their dad was the plant manager. My dad drug our butt in here, and we worked every

Saturday and Sunday, and we worked in maintenance department. The plant is in Central Arkansas.

It once employed 1,500 people, but today it's down to around 500, and it is far more high-tech.

They've got robots that weld steel, a state-of-the-art paint system, but they still need people

to operate and maintain all of that equipment.

On the campaign trail, creating manufacturing jobs is one of the first things

Trump mentioned in his big economic speeches. But we're here today to talk about how we're going to

launch a historic buildup of American manufacturing muscle. So the tariffs and tax cuts and regulation

rollbacks, Trump says they're all aimed at sparking a manufacturing

renaissance. It's worth noting that the manufacturing industry has lost around 100,000 jobs

during Trump's second term so far, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And none of those

measures really helps with the big problem facing Steve Presley at Virgo Manufacturing,

how to find enough skilled workers.

That's where we're really behind the eight ball.

Hiring is hard in Arkansas, not for the reasons you might be thinking.

Everybody can make fun of Arkansas. I'll say what they want to say, but this is a really strong

economy here. And with a strong economy, there's a lot of competition for labor.

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