Jobs Nobody Want
Reuters reports on a weird phenomenon: jobs for highly skilled machinists are going unfilled because American companies simply cannot find enough trained workers. These are relatively high wage manufacturing jobs that the companies are aggressively trying to fill. But they are having to turn down orders because there simply are not enough hands to do the work.
TRAFFORD, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – Only half the machines are running at precision parts maker Hamill Manufacturing, nestled in the Allegheny Mountains just east of Pittsburgh, once the booming center of the U.S. steel industry.
But the factory's overcapacity is the result not of a shortage of business — it has more orders than it can fill, despite a slowing U.S. economy — but because of a shortage of skilled workers."I'd hire 10 machinists right now if I could," said John Dalrymple, president of the company, which makes high-end parts for military helicopters and nuclear submarines. "That's eight to 10 percent of our workforce."
While millions of jobs making everything from textiles to steel have moved to new powerhouses like China in recent years, precision manufacturing remains a crucial niche in the United States, one that is overworked and chronically understaffed.
And, in a bad sign for the United States and its declining economic might, that shortage of skilled workers is likely to get worse as Baby Boomers retire — with no younger generation of manufacturing workers to take the baton.
"Our workforce is an aging workforce," said Chief Executive Jeff Kelly, whose father founded Hamill nearly 60 years ago. "There isn't a queue of people lining up to come into the industry."
Some 20 percent of small to medium-sized manufacturers — those with up to 2,000 workers — cited retaining or training employees as their No. 1 concern, according to a survey by the National Association of Manufacturers. The survey was carried out in 2007 but has not been published yet.
A separate study in 2005, the latest available, said 90 percent of manufacturers are suffering a moderate to severe shortage of qualified workers.
I have seen this exact thing myself. A shortage of skilled boilermakers, pipefitters and especially of riggers was a real problem recently in planning construction for a new power plant. Fewer and fewer young engineers entering the power industry is also a real problem that utilities have been trying to rectify for years now, so it is happening on the white collar side as well as on the blue collar. All of these are skilled fields requiring highly trained workers – and the jobs are very hard to fill. As the boomers retire, there is going to be a huge knowledge loss and we could see some serious problems fairly soon.
By chuck, January 21, 2008 @ 8:06 pm
The small machine shops around here have been scrambling for machinists for several years. I see lots of young folks in local construction, but machining takes training, equipment, experience, and even some math. In other words, it takes preparation and young folks need to have an educational path into the field. I suspect that modern education kinda misses the whole industrial field. Where are the machinists in Sesame Street?
Reminds me of a story about a gunsmith who was looking for an apprentice. He was a high end gunsmith, never lacked for work, and made excellent money, but couldn’t find any young people interested in taking up the profession. Somehow, young people have been raised to expect that work will just appear, as if it has no connection to what underpins the economy.
When I first got to college in the 60’s I noticed that the School of Mines didn’t actually train mining engineers. It was at that point that I realized that heavy industry in this country was headed into history.
By feeblemind, January 22, 2008 @ 11:40 am
Right after I got out of college in the late 70s, I had a boss who told me that if he could start over, he would be a machinist. They were in short supply in the 70s.
By Mockinbird, January 22, 2008 @ 5:02 pm
It’s bad.
College culture may have something to do with it.
It’s easier to major in Poli Sci than Engineering.
Easier to go for Communications than Mathematics.
I nearly broke my brain getting through Microeconomics (B.S. Economics),
but I didn’t want to work for $8000 a year.