Why so many U.S. manufacturers are putting up ‘Help Wanted’ signs

[NED funded]

This is not new, reuters reported on the same issue months ago


Why so many U.S. manufacturers are putting up ‘Help Wanted’ signs

Susan Murray Carlock says her Indiana company is providing something popular opinion has deemed nearly extinct: well-paying manufacturing jobs. Over the past four years, Mursix Corp., a creator of seat belt buckles and bed frames, has sought to fill a variety of production positions. The average wages exceed $20 an hour — a ladder to the middle class.

Trouble is, she can’t find workers.

“We’ve been on a growth trajectory that is crazy,” said Carlock, whose family bought the firm for roughly $5 million in 1990 and has watched it grow into a $42 million business. “But we face serious labor force issues.”

The company needs skilled laborers, men and women who can absorb the “tribal knowledge” of the toolmakers before they retire, she said. This year, in an effort to draw talent, the firm set up an apprenticeship, paying promising employees as they learn the trade.

Carlock’s predicament isn’t isolated, even in the Rust Belt, where steadily vanishing manufacturing jobs became central to this year’s presidential election. She knows of at least two other plants in Muncie, Ind., a college town in the state’s northeast quadrant, that face a similar hiring challenge.

“We’re all competing with each other for people,” she said. “To say manufacturing is dying in the United States just isn’t true.”

But American manufacturing is changing, and the enterprises flourishing today often demand a different set of skills than assembly lines of the past.

[Meet the union leader who called Trump a liar]

One reason for the labor shortage is the fear of change, said Michael Hicks, a business professor at Ball State University in Muncie, Carlock’s city. Many of the open roles involve computer assistance, which requires job training. Although some companies and state programs will cover the tuition bills, some workers, particularly those who’ve held the same job for decades, are hesitant to take them up on the offer, even if unemployment is imminent and the wages are competitive.

The average hourly wage for these roles is approximately $20, according to federal data.

“I’ve gone to war,” said Hicks, an army veteran turned academic, “and going back to school was scarier.”

Young people aren't helping fill the slots either, he noted. They don’t flock to mid-sized cities like they do to, say, Chicago. The share of employees older than 45 in the skilled trades, for example, is about 25 percent larger than for the broader workforce.

Drug use, on the rise in rural counties, also disqualifies a chunk of prospective hires, Hicks said.

A talent demand exists, in some form, across the country, according to a report released Wednesday by the Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning think tank focused on economic growth. Eighty-eight percent of American manufacturers said they have difficulty finding workers, noted author Mark Mills, once a factory machinist and now a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

“There are an estimated half-million more ‘skilled trades’ jobs (i.e., for non-college-educated workers) available than people trained to fill them,” according to the report.

“People are worried about robots,” Mills said, “but I call them 'co-bots,' because they need a skilled worker to run them.”

President Obama touted that growth in a speech in June.

“We've seen more manufacturing jobs created since I've been president than any time since the 1990s,” Obama said. “That's a fact.”

[A small Indiana town doesn’t have a police force because all its officers just quit]

His assertion was true, but it lacks an important caveat. Although the country added thousands of manufacturing jobs since 2010, the numbers haven't come close to returning to pre-recession levels, as Politifact pointed out, a consequence of both trade and technology.

There were about 17 million manufacturing jobs in 2000, and that number today sits closer to 12 million, according to employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The shrinkage accelerated in the years after the North American Free Trade Agreement took effect, enabling companies to tap cheap labor overseas and bringing down the prices of consumer goods.

President-elect Donald Trump frequently alluded to the lost work on the campaign trail.

“Our politicians took away from the people their means of making a living and supporting their families,” he said in a Pennsylvania speech, targeting aggrieved steelworkers. “Skilled craftsmen and tradespeople and factory workers have seen the jobs they loved shipped thousands of miles away.”

One place preparing to adapt to a flurry of jobs shuttled south of the border is Huntington, Ind., about 100 miles northeast of the state capital. United Technologies Electronic Controls, the city’s largest employer, plans to move about 700 jobs to Mexico next year, displacing local workers.

Rick Farrant, spokesman for Northwest Indiana Works, a nonprofit workforce development organization, said the layoffs will be disruptive and painful. But he’s confident everyone who loses their job can find another one at comparable pay.

The region boasts more than 10,000 car part manufacturing jobs, for example, and that subsector is expected to grow 8 percent in the next decade, an analysis of Economic Modeling Specialists International data found. The plastic parts subsector, which employs more than 5,000 workers, is projected to grow 7 percent. The vehicle manufacturing subsector, home to 4,246 workers, is on track to grow 22 percent.

“Educational and training institutions are ready to help those workers who want to improve their skills,” Farrant said. “There are also many manufacturers in the region with job openings.”

[Independent voter]

People don't want to move to where the jobs are for various reasons.

[Orbitus]

People don't want to move to where the jobs are for various reasons.

And I guarantee you the biggest reason is, because they can't afford to.

[NED funded]

And I guarantee you the biggest reason is, because they can't afford to.

This was my first thought as well, but this doesn't seem to be an issue with Latino and African American individuals.

[Aori]

And I guarantee you the biggest reason is, because they can't afford to.

I can't drive because of eye sight, I can't just pick up and move. The costs are just so large when you have no income.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

This was my first thought as well, but this doesn't seem to be an issue with Latino and African American individuals.

If so then its likely they live there.

[Dennu]

I think we need to entertain the notion that small towns are by and large a thing of the past and something we need to help people transition out of. People aren't going to go bring these jobs out to the middle of nowhere when all of the labor concentrations are in cities, so no amount of available jobs is going to help the rural unemployed who either can't move or simply stubbornly refuse to move.

Cities are awful. Way too many people, crowded no matter where you go.

[NED funded]

If so then its likely they live there.

No, what I mean is that latinos and African Americans move accordingly. Whites don't. This seems to be more of a cultural issue rather than costs.

[Dennu]

No, what I mean is that latinos and African Americans move accordingly. Whites don't. This seems to be more of a cultural issue rather than costs.

I guess white people know better than to move to urban areas then.

[pfbe]

No, what I mean is that latinos and African Americans move accordingly. Whites don't. This seems to be more of a cultural issue rather than costs.

got some stats?

[NED funded]

I think we need to entertain the notion that small towns are by and large a thing of the past and something we need to help people transition out of. People aren't going to go bring these jobs out to the middle of nowhere when all of the labor concentrations are in cities, so no amount of available jobs is going to help the rural unemployed who either can't move or simply stubbornly refuse to move.

Agree, but my problem is that if they refuse to move due to stuborness what would be the adequate answer?

[Super Kami Dende]

So from what I'm taking from this article as well is people don't want to work Jobs that MAY at some point in the future become obsolete. So instead of working now and making Money whilst it isn't, they are just ducking out early?

Lazy fucks, Lazy fucks everywhere.

[NED funded]

got some stats?

https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/bkov...trecession.pdf

[Knaar]

Might be a case like i see in my region : They want to hire a person for a specific post, they require to have X years spent to a similar job (aka have experience) and if you show up and either a) dont have the exact same experience they asking for or b) have less years of experience then what they asking, they dont hire you.

Or another i see alot here : asking people to have degrees/diploma in, for exemple, administrative and archives (you know, taking care of files and sorting everything, which you can get a degree in, only take 3 years) so they can hire you to deal with the daily journals and mail they get. Since of course need to have done studies to learn how to deal with mail for a local small town librairy......

And then they obvisouly cant find someone for that job and go complain about it!

/rant off

sorry >_>

[JohnBrown1917]

And I guarantee you the biggest reason is, because they can't afford to.

Or to move away from family.

[Orbitus]

Or to move away from family.

I am saying the biggest reason of them all is the monetary issue. Not saying that it is the only issue. This one could be as well. It is kinda hard to move from one side of the country to the other and not knowing anyone in the area and not even sure you can even get a job.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

Can't they just commute? I'd figure 20$ an hour (which is pretty high in Indiana I believe) minus the commute costs is still pretty good.

[Nilinor]

Its a multi-faceted issue

They have SKILL jobs that aren't readily taught in any schools except for trade schools and most people that go to trade schools are the ones where its part of the family business. People go to college, not trade school.

On top of that, as stated earlier, they would have to move to where all these jobs are, but that is expensive choice for a "chance" to get a job that you may find out you are not qualified for.

If they really want people to take these jobs, they have to put on the job training with pay and ease them into the roles, you invest (per a work contract so they don't learn and go to a different job later) in your workers so all they know is about your specific business and not a generic version of it, it actually makes them more productive. No one will do that, but its probably one of the better decisions they could do to fill their slots they need.

[JohnBrown1917]

I am saying the biggest reason of them all is the monetary issue. Not saying that it is the only issue. This one could be as well. It is kinda hard to move from one side of the country to the other and not knowing anyone in the area and not even sure you can even get a job.

I'm aware, just adding onto 2. You probably got most people covered with those 2.

- - - Updated - - -

So from what I'm taking from this article as well is people don't want to work Jobs that MAY at some point in the future become obsolete. So instead of working now and making Money whilst it isn't, they are just ducking out early?

Lazy fucks, Lazy fucks everywhere.

Or spending money to get trained in those kind of jobs is a risk.

[Cthulhu 2020]

So from what I'm taking from this article as well is people don't want to work Jobs that MAY at some point in the future become obsolete. So instead of working now and making Money whilst it isn't, they are just ducking out early?

Lazy fucks, Lazy fucks everywhere.

And when a lot of us point out that immigrants are taking jobs Americans don't want to do, the general response is "WHAT? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE, AMERICANS ARE WILLING TO WORK ANY JOB!"