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Older generations have often debated why, when faced with such high and prolonged unemployment, millennials haven’t been more willing to change their career path or compromise to take jobs in, say, manufacturing. Well, now they are — en masse.

Economic output from the manufacturing sector in the United States has steadily increased since the 1980s, with current output second only to China, and Japan a distant third, according to PolicyMic. Sure, computer-run machines did contribute to lower employment in this sector from 1999 to 2009, when approximately six million manufacturing jobs (or roughly one out of every three) disappeared according to The Atlantic. Now, it appears this constant technological innovation may actually be what saves American manufacturing, creating a slew of new jobs for highly skilled, highly educated, tech-native millennials — with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that there were more than 248,000 U.S.-based manufacturing job openings as of February of 2014.

While manufacturers face such high numbers of job openings, positions left vacant as Boomers retire in droves, they are working hard to woo millennials by “making manufacturing sexy again,” through skills training and by trying to change the perception of manufacturing as an undesirable career path.

Since 2000, the increasingly cool Maker Movement has spawned a renewed and growing generational interest in manufacturing and traditional craftsmanship, and coupled with millennials’ proven desire to buy and support domestically “Made in USA” products, according to Yahoo! Finance, there’s recipe for a return to factory jobs — even if those jobs are decidedly more white collar or “techie” than what their Boomer predecessors would recognize.

Reuters reported that the proliferation of high-tech but affordable manufacturing tools and new sources of funding are now empowering a young generation of handy entrepreneurs, laying the foundation for a hardware renaissance. Those entrepreneurs have flocked to crowdfunding to help manufacture these "cool" American-made goods, according to NBC News, whose scan of the crowdfunding site Kickstarter yielded start-ups making everything from apparel to bottle openers — many with prominent "Made in USA" messaging and millennials behind the helm. As a result, the Huffington Post reports that "maker culture" is now gaining popularity in higher education and being promoted as a valuable tool for increasing diverse enrollments in STEM fields and applied programs, such as economics and entrepreneurship.

The recently launched America Makes Foundation also has the goal of recruiting more millennials into manufacturing. The foundation will sponsor scholarships — ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 that can be applied for technical school or college — for high school or college students who have an idea for a product that can be made in America. Winners also will receive a cash investment between $500 and $1,000 to implement their idea. To apply, students must submit a short video that includes a description of their proposed product and an explanation about why they like creating new products. The first batch of winners is expected to be announced in April 2015, with future winners announced quarterly.

April Lane is a freelance writer.