Skip to footer

Manufacturer needs and worker skills don't match up

Manufacturing  jobs are growing slowly because laborers don't have the skills that factories need. 

|
Brian Snyder/Reuters/File
A worker does quality checks on razor blades manufactured at Gillette's factory in Boston, Massachusetts in this December 5, 2011 file photo. Manufacturing jobs are suffering from the fact that, increasingly, worker skills don't match the market.

Wells Fargo's Chief Economist is out with a look at the skills mismatch between what manufacturers need versus what the labor force in America can actually do.  John Silvia notes that this mismatch is nothing new even as it seems more and more pronounced.

Further, his research finds that, like most things, the disconnect is a regional thing - certain parts of the country have fared better than others.

Regions That Successfully Countered The Trend

 The decline in manufacturing employment however has not been even across regions of country. In fact, the West and South both have seen very strong manufacturing job growth over the past decade. In the West, producers of technology products have added jobs while the South has benefited primarily from the relocation of facilities from higher-cost producing states in the Midwest to the lower-cost South as well as strong foreign direct investment in industries such as the auto industry. This trend however, is beginning to shift as the cost differentials between the U.S. and other nations such as China are eroding pushing non-durable manufacturing overseas while keeping many specialized, quality focused durable manufacturing in the region. However, the firms staying in the region continue to adopt more technology to stay competitive and thus today’s manufacturing workers need to continue to improve skill levels.

One of the big surprises in this endless balance sheet recession is that we haven't seen a lot more migration a la the Depression where people went to where the work (or the charity) was.  Especially given the disparity in regional economic strength this go-round.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Manufacturer needs and worker skills don't match up
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Reformed-Broker/2012/0229/Manufacturer-needs-and-worker-skills-don-t-match-up
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe