FOR ON THE FLOOR An outlet for the views of today’s capacity assurance professionals Rick Carter, Executive Editor
Skills Shortage As Real As Ever We’re told to embrace change because it’s coming (like it or not). But for those affected by the U.S. skills shortage, change has so far been a no-show. Consistently ranked a top challenge for industry, the shortage of skilled labor for key manufacturing positions has received a lot of coverage and well-meaning attention in the past half-decade, yet still shows little improvement. Our Reader Panelists confirm this disturbing fact—again. Three years have passed since they were last asked about their skills-shortage problems. With few exceptions, the new responses on the subject, below, virtually match the old ones. I regret the repetition. I also hope another three years won’t pass before the news improves.
Q: How does your current skills-shortage issue compare to the situation you had three years ago? “The skills shortage continues to worsen. Very few young people are encouraged to pursue a career in the skilled trades.” … Reliability/Maintenance Engineer, South
Q: Does your company still have trouble filling skilled positions?
“I can’t see much difference. This has been a growing problem for several years.” … Senior Maintenance Mechanic, South
“Yes, we are having a very difficult time hiring qualified maintenance technicians, especially those with PLC knowledge.” … Senior Facilities Engineer, South
“Our situation is about the same. We have been trying to grow and improve our maintenance staff for more than two years.” … Senior Facilities Engineer, South
“We continue our struggle to find experienced maintenance technicians. We have been relegated to hiring young people right out of vocational maintenance programs with little or no experience.” … Reliability/Maintenance Engineer, South
“It hasn’t proven to be a problem, now nor then. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t become one.” … Maintenance Engineer, West
“It is becoming increasingly hard to find people. Most who seek higher education aren’t interested in this type of work and many who are consider it ‘just a job’ and don’t want to develop skills.” … Senior Maintenance Mechanic, South “With few exceptions we’re not refilling positions, skilled or otherwise. But when we do, we are finding a lot of qualified people.” … Maintenance Engineer, West
16 |
“We are still having trouble filling trades positions, particularly electricians. Most have experience only in construction or home building. We have hired some of them and they generally are not able to catch on with the logic or the programming.” … PM Leader, Midwest
MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY
“It’s much worse. Hiring is brisk in our area, and we lose personnel as fast as we can fill positions due to demand from local manufacturers with openings that pay higher starting rates.” … Maintenance Supervisor, South Q: What does your company do to mitigate skills-shortage problems? “I cannot convince my company to do anything [in this area]. I’m told there has to be somebody out there.” … Senior Facilities Engineer, South
OCTOBER 2013