A recent post on Skilled Labor Shortage issues in the LinkedIn group Fabricators & Manufacturers Association generated a robust discussion that is worth reading. From talking to many of you with SMB manufacturing companies over the years, I know that most of you have experienced trouble hiring qualified and committed workers across the skilled machining specialties. And you’re not alone. Consider that…
“even as the American manufacturing sector shrinks by a million jobs over the next decade, it will see a shortage of labor, as 2 million manufacturing workers retire and few are trained to take their place”
Anthony P. Carnevale, an economist and head of Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce
in Business Week “Can Retraining Give the Unemployed a Second Chance?” September 14, 2011
This is a substantial challenge to our manufacturing economy. So please check out these other articles mentioned in the LinkedIn discussion and then join the LinkedIn group and add your two cents. Or start the conversation here by commenting on this blog post.
Please check out:
“Why Companies Aren’t Getting the Employees They Need” – The Wall Street Journal, October 24, 2011
“Got the people, but not the skills” – Minneapolis Star Tribune, Octobe 25, 2011
“Can Retraining Give the Unemployed a Second Chance?” – Business Week, September 14, 2011
“Skilled Labor Shortage?” – LinkedIn discussion in the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International (FMA) Group, Fall 2011
Video: “Mike Rowe on the importance of skilled labor” – Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel’s ‘Dirty Jobs,’ recently told Congress why we need to do a better job nurturing skilled laborers. by Shea Gunther on the Mother Nature Network blog, June 23, 2011 (Twitter: @mothernaturenet)
You can also check out sites like Digg.com that are powerful virtual book marking sites. I searched for “skilled labor in manufacturing” and there were over 4,000 results fitting that criteria that various people had bookmarked over the years.
One great article link I found on Digg.com was “Manufacturers Respond to Skills Shortage” on the Shopfloor blog by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). The article was about a National Public Radio series that features in-house manufacturing job training and “the NAM’s Manufacturing Institute” which creates “partnerships with local companies, educational institutions, and worforce development groups in the Institute’s ‘Dream It Do It’ campaign.”
As you can see, there is a wealth of information and discussion on this topic that is so critical to the future of manufacturing in the USA. Please use these resources and become an active advocate for our manufacturing economy! And feel free to add additional resources in the comments sections of this blog entry. (when you add good resources, we’ll add them to the blog post!)