At the very moment that manufacturing is resurgent in the U.S., the plastics industry is ill-equipped to respond. Reaping the twin harvests of a ready-to-retire skilled workforce and a meager crop of new talent, plastics—like many other sectors—is scrambling to respond to the current crisis and cultivate new talent.
With 56 years of shop experience and 25 as an educator, Joe Genc brings a unique perspective to plastics’ current predicament. He’s a tool engineer at Berry Plastics Mold Manufacturing (formerly Rexam) in Buffalo Grove, Ill., as well as a moldmaking instructor for the Technology & Manufacturing Association (TMA), Park Ridge, Ill. (tmanet.com). At age 70, Genc is part of a generation of plastics professionals who are closer to retirement than to the start of their careers, but he is also among those trying to address the so-called skills gap. These days, he undertakes the latter task with a heightened sense of urgency.
Observes Genc, “A lot of manufacturing is coming back, and now the big problem becomes, ‘What the hell do we do?’ A lot of the people who would have been mold or die makers are into something else. The guys who have been in it forever—people like me—we’re lucky to have these people, but they’re only going to be here so much longer, including myself.”
Julie Horst, director of communications at custom injection molder and contract manufacturer, Mack Molding, Arlington, Vt., says her company harbors the same concerns about building staff to meet the challenge of new business. “This country lost an awful lot of manufacturing overseas,” Horst says. “During that time period, we also lost a generation of people who were growing up within a manufacturing mindset and working in manufacturing jobs.” Now manufacturing is coming back—some of it through “reshoring”—but where are the people to implement it?
Interviews with processors, educators, and government officials reveal an acute awareness of the skills gap, as well as a number of initiatives to not only deal with the immediate problem of finding help as work returns, but also piquing kids’ interest in manufacturing to create a pipeline of skilled workers for the future.
600,000 OPEN POSITIONS
How tight is the current skilled worker market? In May, The National Press Club hosted an event entitled “The Manufacturing Skills Gap: How a Shortage of Skilled Workers and Needed Education is Affecting the Economic Recovery,” where speakers cited two worrisome figures: There are approximately 600,000 skilled manufacturing jobs that are currently unfilled in the U.S., and 2.7 million manufacturing workers are expected to retire in the next 10 years.
Part of the gap can be explained by the overall decline in manufacturing over the last three decades or so. According to a March 2011 study by Deutsche Bank Group, manufacturing employment has fallen 40% from its peak in 1979, while employment in the rest of the economy has risen by almost 70%. A Deloitte study found that manufacturing’s share of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) went from 26% in 1947 to only 11% in 2011, with 6 million manufacturing jobs lost since 2002.
That trend, if not the total numbers, is now reversing. Manufacturing added 28,000 jobs in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; and over the prior 12 months, the sector tacked on an average of 12,000 jobs/month, primarily in durable goods. Overall, a stellar record, given the broader economy’s faltering job creation since the end of the Great Recession.
The article comes from China injection mold manufacturer - Mold Best Assurance Company Limited, website is www.mbamoldanddesign.com
