The national unemployment rate has ranged between 9 to 10 percent for nearly three years, representing 14-15 million workers and another 8-9 million workers that are considered underemployed.\u00a0 \u00a0The unemployment rate for the manufacturing industry jumped from 8.3 percent in December 2008 to a high of 13.0 percent in January 2010, but has ranged from a high of 9.9 percent in January 2011 to a low of 8.9 percent in August.<\/p>\n
We have lost more than 5.5 million manufacturing jobs in the past decade, and over 57,000 manufacturing companies have gone out of business.\u00a0 Aren\u2019t there enough workers who lost jobs to fill the needs of companies that have survived and are now experiencing the recovery of the manufacturing industry?\u00a0\u00a0 With over 20 million many unemployed or underemployed workers, why is there a lack of skilled workers?<\/p>\n
The main reasons for the lack of workers with the specific skills needed by today\u2019s higher technology manufacturers are:<\/p>\n
First of all, a large percentage of the people who lost their jobs came out of industries that have been decimated by the offshoring of manufacturing \u2013 textiles, furniture, tires, sporting goods, and the garment industry just to name a few.\u00a0 For example, the garment district in New York City has virtually disappeared, and now there is only one company left that makes gloves ? LaCrasia Gloves<\/a>.<\/p>\n An added blow was the decimation of the automobile and auto parts industry during the Great Recession when North American auto production<\/a> dropped from an average of 14-15 million vehicles per year down to below 10 million vehicles in 2008.<\/p>\n Most of these industries were dominated by large manufacturers employing hundreds to thousands of workers in plants located in the northeast, Midwest, and south.\u00a0 They either worked on assembly lines or utilized specific skills suited to their industries.\u00a0 In some cases, a textile plant, furniture plant, or automotive plant was the only large employer in the town.\u00a0 When the plant closed, workers either had to take whatever other job they could find or relocate to another area.\u00a0 If they were over the age of 55, they were fortunate to find a job at all.\u00a0 In most cases, these workers didn\u2019t have the specific skills needed in high-tech manufacturing industries.<\/p>\n When the manufacturing industry seems to be in a nationwide downward spiral, workers don\u2019t even know where to relocate to find other types of manufacturing jobs.\u00a0 And, if their spouse still has a good job, there is no incentive to move to where there might be an opportunity for another manufacturing job.\u00a0 For example, I\u2019m sure that only residents in the region are aware that German industrial corporation AG Siemens has a new plant in Charlotte, North Carolina and is hiring nearly 900 workers.<\/p>\n Another reality is that American workers in the regions of highest unemployment don\u2019t have backgrounds in the manufacturing industry.\u00a0 In fact, of the top ten cities of highest unemployment, eight are located in the mostly agricultural regions of California:\u00a0 El Centro, Merced, Yuba City, Stockton, Modesto, Fresno, Visalia-Porterville, and Hanford-Corcoran. \u00a0It would be an education and logistics challenge of tremendous proportions to retrain these workers for jobs in the manufacturing industry.<\/p>\n Second, manufacturing\u2019s tarnished image has led young people entering the workforce to choose other career paths.\u00a0 In an article<\/a> titled, \u201cWhat the shortage in skilled manufacturing workers means to a hungry industry\u201d of the e-newsletter Smart Business, Kika Young, human resources director at Forest City Gear Co. Inc. of Rockford, IL, said \u201cMost people in Gen Y out of high school don\u2019t think of manufacturing as a career or as a good option.\u00a0 They don\u2019t think of it as glamorous; they think of it as dark and dingy and dirty and aren\u2019t interested in going into that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c Emily Stover DeRocco, president of The Manufacturing Institute of Washington, D.C., an organization dedicated to improving and expanding manufacturing in America, said, \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely true that the image and the definition of manufacturing in this country has not kept up with the industry.\u201d\u00a0 She added, \u201cCompanies need to invest more in employee training and make workforce skills a top strategic priority.\u00a0 Our education system must also do a better job aligning education and training to the needs of employers and job-seekers.\u00a0In the face of a global recession and intense international competition, American manufacturers must differentiate themselves through innovation and a highly skilled workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n Third, the attrition of skilled workers through retirement, death, and disability year after year is compounding the problem.\u00a0 Harry Moser, retired president of GF AgieCharmilles and founder of the Reshoring Initiative,<\/a> estimates that \u201cabout 8 percent of the manufacturing workforce is lost each year due to retirement, promotion, career changes, disability, and mortality.\u201d\u00a0 In the machining industry, this means a loss of \u201cabout 20,000 to 25,000 skilled machinists per year\u2026In contrast, only about 8,000 per year receive sufficient machining training in high school, community college and apprentice programs to be considered good recruits.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics<\/a> estimate that 2.8 million, nearly a quarter of all U.S. manufacturing workers, are 55 or older. \u00a0While manufacturing has led the United States out of the recession, the improvement has been a mixed blessing because as more skilled workers are needed, the supply is limited because baby boomers are retiring or getting close to retirement.\u00a0 What makes the situation worse is that there aren\u2019t enough new ones to replace them because the subsequent generations were smaller and fewer chose manufacturing as a career.<\/p>\n The convergence of all of these factors has resulted in an insufficient number of workers trained for advanced manufacturing jobs.\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s more of a skills gap in the specific skills needed by today\u2019s manufacturers than a shortage of skilled workers.\u00a0 In the past 15 years, the manufacturing industry has evolved from needing low-skilled production-type assembly workers to being highly technology-infused as it follows lean principles.<\/p>\n