Manufacturer Suffers form Migrant Workers Shortage

Executives at manufacturing companies across state are grappling with a perplexing dilemma: Despite unemployment remaining at a traditionally high level, manufacturing is being crippled by a lack of skilled workers. This problem is not new. Manpower Inc. reported in its “2009 Talent Shortage Survey” that manufacturing-related occupations — skilled trades, technicians, engineers, et al — rank among the top five positions that employers were having the most trouble filling. Fast forward three years later, and the problem is not getting any better. An October 2011 survey from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute showed American manufacturers cannot fill as many as 600,000 skilled positions.

More disturbing is that the survey results show that while 67 percent of manufacturers say they have a moderate to severe shortage of available and qualified workers, 56 percent expect the problem to increase in the next three to five years. Demand for skilled workers is at a peak, a crescendo that threatens to drown out any possibility of a recovery in the sector. Sixty-four percent of respondents to the Deloitte survey say this lack of talent is having “a significant impact” on their ability to expand operations or improve productivity. Many West Michigan manufacturers are tired of the search for talent. They are finding they have to grow their own.

'People are just starting to realize that they need to grow these skilled workers from within or with internships they can use to train them in the most beneficial way,” said William C. Small, VP of technical services at The Right Place Inc. and west regional director of the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center. “That can be quite an undertaking.” The trend of companies developing internal avenues for talent development is in its infancy, Small said, noting that many seasoned people on the manufacturing shop floor are being asked to step up to management. While Small said many people believe candidates have a great opportunity to pursue CNC machining, for example, he believes the need among local manufacturers is a little more general than that.

Now, they don’t feel so blessed. Sources say that not only are the veteran skilled workers gone from the industry, but also the younger generations — those at ages when people historically went into manufacturing — want nothing to do with factory life. They’ve been tempered by a negative image many people associate with manufacturingof and other mining machines such as . They — and their parents, in many cases — believe it is dirty and dangerous, even though advanced manufacturing is none of the above, experts say. That has been a problem for manufacturing since the mid-1970s. But now the sector faces a new dilemma. It was counted out for so many years, and its rebirth has been totally underreported.