Manufacturing Tech Expo at College of DuPage 2014 (COD Newsroom FLIKR)
This morning the Union Leader posted an article about New Hampshire manufacturers, like GE, who are looking for highly skilled, highly educated workers to fill vacant jobs.
“Signal processing, navigation, optics and measurement are particularly advantaged in New Hampshire,” she said. “No other state is doing this type of advanced manufacturing to the same degree as New Hampshire.”
The state also shines in semi-conductors, complex electronics, precision machining, aerospace and defense, medical devices and technology. But there’s a problem.
“Take precision machining,” said Lands. “We found the average age of a worker in that field is in the mid-50s, which means that precision machining knowledge is walking out the door, and is not easily replaced. It is not something that can be learned from a textbook. It is something that has to be apprenticed at the hands of an experienced machinist.”
Folsum from GE Aviation pointed out that the average age at his plant is 50, and he is trying to hire 300 people. “I think we are representative of a lot of manufacturers,” he said. “That’s why we’re here.”…”Employers are not expecting high schools or community colleges to turn out master machinists. They’re looking for entry-level employees with the basic skills needed to succeed in an apprenticeship program.”
Two things jump out at me instantly when I read this article.
1. Your aging workforce has probably been working there for decades and those workers started when manufacturing paid workers well and was the gateway to the middle class. They started when working in a manufacturing plant was a prestigious, well respected position for many people and especially for those who choose not to go to college or were unable to make it.
Manufacturers would hire workers, and in partnership with the union, train them to do the job. Together the union and the employer would continue to train workers so they could move up and make better money and stay right inside the plant.
Now manufacturing has changed. It is highly technical and many employers require college degrees before they will even consider an employee. This leads into my second question.
2. What are you paying these “apprentices” in your manufacturing plants?
You cannot expect college graduates, most likely with massive student loan debt, to jump up and take a job in a manufacturing plant at rock-bottom wages. Now I do not know what GE, or the others, offer in starting pay (because they do not post it on their jobs listings), but I would venture a guess that it is not high enough.
For a long time now New Hampshire has had a problem with our young workers leaving the state and our population growing older and older. The “graying” of the workforce is a combination of low-wages offered by employers and high cost of living, so young people are fleeing the state. (This is also in part to our extremely high cost of college.) They go off to find jobs in cheaper places to live. They are not finding better jobs, but they feel they are making more because they spend less to live.
I am glad the Governor, Colleges and Universities, and business leaders are coming together to talk about the needs of the business community, however you have to stop telling us that there are no workers with the education you require.
According to national data from EPI, the unemployment rate of 2015 college graduates is 7.9% and an under-employment rate of 14.9%.
The people are out there but what are NH manufactures willing to do to attract them here? The simple solution is to raise the wages and you will attract highly educated, highly qualified individuals who would like to live and work in New Hampshire.
Manufacturing’s problem is not that there are not enough educated workers out there to do the job, it is there are not enough college educated adults willing to do the work for the wages you offer.
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