Now this is interesting.  Quite the contrary to what we usually hear, isn’t it?  According to USA Today, while it is true that millions of low-skill manufacturing jobs have gone overseas, more than 80% of manufacturers in America say they suffer from a severe lack of skilled workers.  These are high-skill positions, but it’s important to note that they don’t require any college degree at all.  In fact, many employers are offering free training to anyone who will agree to work these relatively well-paying positions.  Mike Bunner says in the article, “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.  When I was a kid, people would stand in line for hours for an opportunity at a job like I have available.  I can’t get people to show up for an interview.”  So if these jobs are available, why aren’t people taking them?

Well, all the commotion about factory closings and job outsourcing sure isn’t encouraging anyone to take these positions.  The public perception of manufacturing jobs are low-class, dirty, and repetitive also hurt employment numbers.  America’s not yet ready to become a completely service-oriented economy, not by a long-shot, but it looks like people can’t distinguish between unskilled assembly line labor and skilled manufacturing work.  These employment shortages are hurting the growth of certain manufacturing industries which are not yet able to move for whatever reasons.

So here’s my question: with 43% of the entire manufacturing labor force 45 years or older, a percent that keeps getting steadily larger, do we want to encourage youth to go into these industries?  It’s clear that they need new employees who are willing to work in skilled labor, but as we move towards service-based industry, is this a field which we want to encourage?  I say yes, it is, because businesses like Mike Bunner’s Electro Chemical Engineering can’t feasibly outsource at this time.  We’re still far from being a complete service economy- in fact, the idea is still a bit far fetched- so we need to make sure that these good jobs aren’t being left alone.  Working with your hands and working with your mind aren’t mutually exclusive, but I think that people generally see it that way.  Realistically, for the time being, we still need a good proportion of lawyers to plastic welders.