Anyone tuned in to the state of manufacturing in America has been aware of the perennial thorn in the side of manufacturers everywhere: the skills gap. For many years now, manufacturers have struggled to fill open positions due to a shortage of workers with the skills needed to work with and alongside new advanced automation technologies.
The skills gap was identified as a major issue more than a decade ago. Manufacturers and the government alike have strategized and put potential solutions into place for years now. Is any progress being made? Or is the skills gap as bad as it’s always been?
According to a Supply Chain Management Review article by Jason Miller, “[t]hough U.S. manufacturers are not facing the endemic challenges with recruiting labor that they suffered in 2021 and 2022, issues regarding labor shortages are ongoing.”
Miller notes that “the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization (QSPC)…data through Q3 2024 shows that approximately 20.6% of manufacturing plants in the U.S. that failed to produce at their full capacity cited insufficient supply of labor or labor skills as a key constraint in their production.”
While “[t]his number is less than half of the peak reading of 46.3% recorded in Q3 2021,” Miller points out that, “[f]rom a longer-term historical perspective,” current numbers resemble those from the late 1990s, when “roughly 20% of plants cited insufficient supply of labor or labor skills as a constraint on capacity utilization.”
That’s a disappointing assessment of how long manufacturers have been dealing with the skills gap and how little progress has been made over the last three decades. Unfortunately, many experts fear that labor shortages may get worse in the months and years to come as a result of threats of mass deportations made by the Trump administration.
In particular, mass deportations could upend the food manufacturing sector, “which is the largest sector of U.S. manufacturing by employment (at over 1.7 million individuals) as well as contribution to for-hire trucking demand—generating roughly 14.5% of all ton-miles of freight hauled by for-hire carriers based on the Commodity Flow Survey.”
Overall, the current state of the skills gap is not good, and it’s likely to get worse—potentially much worse—before it gets better. What can manufacturers do to encourage students to choose manufacturing as a career choice? There are no magical solutions. Simply put, we must still do more to educate the next generation of workers about the options available in the skilled trades.
This effort must include all interested parties, including parents, educators, and industry representatives. For years, Amatrol has been helping with this effort by working together with industry and educational institutions to design training programs featuring eLearning curriculum and hands-on experience with trainers equipped with industrial components workers will encounter on the job.
The experts at Amatrol know how rewarding careers in manufacturing and other skilled trades can be, and they’ve been dedicated for years to helping learners gain the knowledge and hands-on skills they need to secure satisfying jobs.
Amatrol’s training programs include cutting-edge technologies in a wide variety of areas, including electrical, electronics, automation, HVACR, process control, pneumatics, hydraulics, and more. Visit Amatrol online to learn more about its many different types of industrial training programs. For more information about how Amatrol can help you inspire and train the next generation of workers, contact an expert at Amatrol today!
