http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/16/smallbusiness/manufacturing_jobs/index.htm?iid=Lead&hpt=hp_c1

Interesting, some manufacturing jobs are coming back to the US, but because of the decreased emphasis in training young people in those sort of trade skills over the last few decades, they're having trouble finding the workers they need for it. Now they may be forced to hire people "off the street" and then spend years training them.

Is it any wonder that as a whole manufacturing skills in the US became less and less emphasized/important, and now suddenly they can't find enough people with the background necessary to do these jobs?

I remember back when I was in high school in the mid-late 90's, I took some shop/engineering classes. I asked the teacher why we didn't have any classes to learn about the in's and outs of a car. He lamented that the school board said those types of classes aren't worth teaching anymore, and instead they wanted students to be trained in computer stuff (aka clerical stuff). I mentioned that people still drive cars and they still break down, so it would help if students at least got a basic understanding of what to look for when a car makes funny sounds, but he just chuckled at it and said he was doing what the parents wanted the teachers to teach.

Our society has spent the last several decades devaluing skilled labor. This is one of the results.

 

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It's a good thing that business if finally get it.

Although some who don't pay close attention will find this shocking... I completely agree with this.

Vo-Tech has been poo-poo'd in favor of liberal arts, workers have been made to feel completely expendable & modular, blue collar has been portrayed as 'suckers who cannot do better', etc. Nobody is inspired to really learn and excel at their craft or profession when treated like that.

 

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Trade policy has been designed to shift manufacturing jobs overseas in the recent past. People respond to this designed policy by avoiding manufacturing careers.


Im not sure why its surprising that a business might need to train employees. Businesses always have two options: 1) pay more for trained employees or 2) pay less and train them yourself.


The article seems to expect manufacturing to operate differently than the rest of the economy.


If you train them yourself, you get trained workers. If you pay them more, you create incentive for people to become interested in that line of work. One of the businesses in the article described this as the 'new normal'....but this is the way its always been. Pay workers a premium or train them, there is no other normal in any industry.

This.

Whatever business was 'surprised' should fire their analysts - stat.

Did they thing skilled manufacturing labor grew on trees or something?

It depresses me that investments in their greatest assets is seen as a bummer by businesses nowadays. Victims of their own success I suppose.

 

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Wow, an advocacy group that thinks their cause is in crisis? That's first page news right there!

I understand that machinists take time to train, but the idea that "skilled labor" is in danger in this country is kinda silly. It doesn't take 4 years to make a skilled laborer.

For what it's worth, my brother is in industrial engineering and has been working 12-hour days for over a month now. I think the article is correct that there's a shortage of qualified people, but it's kind of shocking that businesses are just sitting around lamenting this instead of, you know, actually training people. If they started with that approach 2 - 3 months ago they'd probably already have qualified people on the floor, at least for the entry level stuff.

 

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i think ive been saying this type of stuff here for quite some time, now.

bout time you dimwits have been told that its a correct position and are now regurgitating others words.


oh, and they will just hire illegals

 

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Actually it does take quite a bit of time to train a machinist, the apprenticeship program really works in that field but it doesn't happen over night. I've been advocating vocational schools for some time, many people aren't going to college but that doesn't mean they can't be trained as skilled workers.

 

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