In 2020, we spoke with dozens of CT manufacturers about the Workforce Summit Series. One question that came up was “Why are you doing workforce recruitment training during a pandemic?” This seems reasonable, after all there are a lot of people looking for work right now. Our answer is always the same.
This won’t last! The flood of potential employees is going to slow down. Also, are the people looking for work necessarily interested in or a good fit for manufacturing?
A recent news release from the Department of Labor shows the workforce challenge for manufacturers is and will continue to exist. Interestingly, the number of manufacturing jobs open in October of 2019 was 403,000. The number of manufacturing jobs that remained open in October of 2020 is 525,000. In spite of the pandemic, unfilled manufacturing positions throughout the country continue to grow.
The release mentions that only manufacturing (nondurable and durable goods) overall had an increase in job openings. The only region that saw a reduction in open positions was the Mid-west. The release also offers many more interesting statistics across a broad spectrum of industries.
The continued growth of unfilled positions in manufacturing is the driving force behind our Workforce Summits. Due to the lovely New England weather we postponed our second webinar until January. Take a look at the Workforce Summit page for more details. We hope you can join us for the rest of the series and look forward to a healthy and prosperous 2021.