600,000 Unfilled Manufacturing Jobs!

During the "great recession" I was commissioned by the Manufacturing Alliance of Philadelpiha to develop a long term strategy for growth. During my research, in addition to City Council members and the Department of Commerce, I interviewed CEOs and Owners of small, medium and large manufacturers throughout the Philadelphia metropolitan area. One discovery back then, at the height of the recession, was a consistent theme of open job positions that could not be filled due the unavailability of applicants with fundamental skills, like eye and hand coordination, shop math etc...

Another was a complaint about the decline in employee work ethic that directly impacts productivity and firings that contributed to the challenge of filling positions. Now, add one last challenge associated with interviewing large numbers of applicants for each position and the vetting of potential candidates with frequent drug test failures, and having to begin the process over again.

Compare these past findings to the frightening levels of unemployment that we are "very" slowly recovering from, and there seems to be a serious disconnect. While most would say that fiscal and monetary policies have not done enough to stimulate consumption, productivity, nor to add jobs fast enough, I question if there is a disconnect between high unemployment, and the large number of open positions in manufacturing?

Fast forward to current day, where I recently sat in an Innovation and Manufacturing symposium at the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University. I listened to nationally recognized Economists who advise the President, make a case for an obvious correlation between innovation and growth in production capacities. A case was also made for the widening skills gap between manufacturing and the current labor force, and unemployment.

At the end of the presentations I asked the following question: "When you speak of steep employment declines in manufacturing and a widening skills gap, how are the hundreds of thousands (roughly *600,000 nationally) of current open job positions in this sector factored into your analysis, considering many positions require only foundational skills, like hand-eye coordination, shop math, measuring skills and speaking English? Imagine the immediate uptick in employment, in manufacturing productivity, in GDP, if these OPEN jobs were filled!" I also mentioned the work ethic finding.

The answer went something like this: Good Point! There does appear to be another layer of data here worth considering and, the work ethic issue does represent a shift in social patterns around which some studies have been done.

The point here is that we are focused almost exclusively on how to create more jobs... Completely understandable given the unemployment rate at that time. BUT, six hundred thousand unfilled positions (600,000) is a lot of jobs waiting to be filled, wouldn't you say? And the more time that passed, the wider the skills gap becomes. The same can be said about widening competency gaps today!

Do we rely on the Government to lead the way? Probably not. Manufacturing associations and alliances should increase collaborations with the Government for funding of proven models that foster strong partnerships between the education system and national manufacturing sectors. Manufacturer's should also take responsibility for employee training while taking advantage of state training funding. And finally, we have to reinstill a sense of place for manufacturing among our younger students, so that they envision a career in this sector.

I am not suggesting that these ideas are revolutionary, as there are disparate programs in place to help workers re-skill or to develop foundational skills. But I am suggesting that this effort be driven on a national level to ensure a multiplier effect on the strengthening of US Manufacturing. One such program here in Philadelphia is the Job Ready Program that is run by the Manufacturing Alliance of Philadelphia.