A
Th e
Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
April 2023 #15285 Page #78
Design Connections
Geordie Secord, Senior Recruiter TheJobLine.com – Canada
The Designer Shortage— Where Can We Find Them
A
challenge for the component industry is brewing no matter if you are located in an area where new home construction continues to be strong or your market is slowed by the combined effects of high interest rates and stubbornly high inflation. Be it single family or multi-family, new designers are not entering the industry as quickly as old grey hairs like me are leaving. From the mid to late 1990s until the 2008 crisis approached, component designers were in high demand, commanding ever higher salaries. The conditions at the time led Thom McAnally and I to create the Component Systems Institute to help train new designers for the industry. In many New Designer cases, design capacity was the limiting constraint for truss plant capacity across North America, and design salaries climbed from the demand pressure. As the market slowed and even collapsed, designers that had been hired at high salary levels were often the first to be let go, as business owners understandably sought to cut costs. We’ve seen that many designers left the truss and component industry, never to return. Some eventually returned to the business as word of increasing demand brought experienced people back, but it certainly feels like the designer shortage has stayed with us throughout this recent boom. Today, we are once again looking at an uncertain economic future, combined with demographic factors common to most industries that see workers transitioning to retirement at a faster rate than they are being replaced. Understanding that it is important to keep an eye on the bottom line, component manufacturers also need to try to maintain a long-term view of the importance of skilled designers to their long-term business success. To the greatest extent possible, component manufacturers need to continuously find and develop new designers. Some will be the backbone of your business in the years to come, and some will flame out and be gone before you know it.
Continued next page
PHONE: 800-289-5627
Read/Subscribe online at www.componentadvertiser.com
FAX: 800-524-4982