Manufacturing sector short on skilled labor – Pittsburgh Business Times

Two robots battle during the seventh annual Southwestern Pennsylvania BotsIQ Competition at Westmoreland County Community College. The college hosted a half-day conference on dealing with the lack of skilled labor in manufacturing in conjunction with the competition.

Manufacturing jobs are coming back to the U.S. and economic data shows the sector is growing but, despite the good news, the sector is facing a looming crisis that could stifle growth and innovation — a lack of skilled labor.

This was the message from a half-day conference at Westmoreland County Community College 
 

Westmoreland County Community College
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convened by various manufacturing organizations working on ways to solve what is becoming a growing problem.

These workforce problems facing manufacturers may only intensify as more companies look to bring work that had been offshored to places like China back to the U.S. through programs like the Obama administration’s insourcing initiative or the grassroots effort by people like Harry Moser and his Reshoring Initiative.

“Reshoring can’t succeed unless manufacturers have the quality and quantity of skilled workers,” Moser told the crowd of about 70 manufacturing leaders. At the same time, he noted, the workers have to see that the jobs are available.

Sporting a custom-designed “manufacturing is cool” T-shirt, Moser encouraged those in attendance to not only use reshoring tools to help their customers see the narrowing cost between sourcing from overseas and sourcing from the U.S. but to also talk about the opportunities available in manufacturing so that young people know there are careers available.

According to the latest data from human resources and staffing company Manpower Group, 52 percent of employers are having difficulty filling jobs, despite high unemployment, said Kelly Scott, regional director of Manpower for Western Pennsylvania and Western New York. “We run a dire risk of losing our economic power,” she said.

The panel of speakers, which included Moser and Scott, as well as representatives from Westmoreland County Community College, the Department of Labor and the Southwest Corner of the Workforce Investment Board, point to school outreach as a key component to solving this problem.

Malia Spencer covers manufacturing and technology. Contact her at mspencer@bizjournals.com or (412) 208-3829. You can also follow her on Twitter.