Manufacturing Day Arrives with 506,000 Job Openings

On this day to honor manufacturers, the industry is turning to automation to meet the major challenge of worker shortages.

Rob Spiegel

October 3, 2024

3 Min Read
Manufacturing Day
SweetBunFactory for iStock / Getty Images Plus via Getty Images

At a Glance

  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 506,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs in August.
  • Manufacturers need to address the workforce’s evolving expectations of flexibility and technology.
  • Manufacturers are turning to technology, from robotics to AR and VR for worker training.

Happy Manufacturing Day!

Manufacturing Day is celebrated on the first Friday in October, with events continuing throughout the month and beyond. Check out MFG Day for details on related events. Manufacturing Day is an initiative of the Manufacturing Institute, an affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Manufacturing news is bright this year as American companies, expand their US operations offering new job opportunities. Yet dark clouds continue to form. Manufacturing Day arrives to an industry that is struggling to overcome worker shortages. The Bureau of Labor Statistics just released its manufacturing job openings report for August 2024: 506,000 job unfilled.

Reach out to Gen Z

Some industry watchers believe manufacturers need to take a new approach to attract young workers. In the 2024 report, Manufacturing Needs a Makeover, McKinsey offered a dire warning to manufacturers seeking to attract Gen Z workers: “Invest in people and develop career paths to nurture and sustain long-term productivity from long-term employees. Or, at the other end of the scale, run your recruitment efforts in overdrive when numbers are short and bemoan the fact that you can’t get staff because no one seems to want to work for your company.”

Related:Smart Manufacturing Is About Change Management

Gen Z will have plenty of opportunities in manufacturing over the coming decade. A recent study from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute noted that US manufacturers could need as many as 3.8 million new employees by 2033. As many as 1.9 million jobs could be left unfilled, underscoring the need for employee-focused strategies to keep up with growth. Sixty-five percent of manufacturers responding to the study said attracting and retaining talent is their primary business challenge. “Investments in skills and strategies that address the workforce’s evolving expectations, including flexibility and technology, could be pivotal to how manufacturers position themselves for success,” said the researchers.

Seeking help with technology

Bryan Christiansen, CEO and founder of Limble CMMS – a maintenance software company – noted that worker shortages is the leading concern of manufacturers. According to Limble’s 2024 State of Maintenance in Manufacturing report, more than 50% of manufacturing leaders cited downtime and workforce shortages as their greatest challenges.

He noted that implementing advanced automation technologies, such as computerized maintenance management Systems (CMMS) that Limble builds can help alleviate the issue. “This Manufacturing Day should be used to showcase the innovation and technological advancements driving the industry forward and inspire the next generation of workers to pursue careers in this evolving field,” said Christiansen.

Related:The Next Big Things in Advanced Manufacturing

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Manufacturers are turning to a wide range of technology to help overcome worker shortages, from robotics and IoT to augmented reality and virtual reality for employee training. Part of the worker shortage is fueled by the Baby Boomer retirement. Manuifacturers are watching their most skilled plant workers leave their jobs, taking their knowledge with them.

At Honeywell’s user conference in Dallas recently, Amit Jain, chief engineer at Chevron, noted Chevron is working with Honeywell on technology designed to capture the expertise of senior workers. “We capture the knowledge over the years. Operators reveal their best ideas of when they push on this or pull back on that. Action speaks louder than words. So, we’re trying to capture the operator’s actions,” Jain explained to Design News. “In the process we get a lot of hallucinations. The operator may be responding to an alarm that has nothing to do with the knowledge we’re trying to capture. When we remove the hallucinations, we are able to capture the action related to the solution. We’ve created a library of all the alarms and the actions that were taken by the expert operator.”

Related:Smart Manufacturing: A Roadmap for Small Shops

About the Author

Rob Spiegel

Rob Spiegel serves as a senior editor for Design News. He started with Design News in 2002 as a freelancer covering sustainability issues, including the transistion in electronic components to RoHS compliance. Rob was hired by Design News as senior editor in 2011 to cover automation, manufacturing, 3D printing, robotics, AI, and more.

Prior to his work with Design News, Rob worked as a senior editor for Electronic News and Ecommerce Business. He served as contributing editolr to Automation World for eight years, and he has contributed to Supply Chain Management Review, Logistics Management, Ecommerce Times, and many other trade publications. He is the author of six books on small business and internet commerce, inclluding Net Strategy: Charting the Digital Course for Your Company's Growth.

He has been published in magazines that range from Rolling Stone to True Confessions.

Rob has won a number of awards for his technolloghy coverage, including a Maggy Award for a Design News article on the Jeep Cherokee hacking, and a Launch Team award for Ecommerce Business. Rob has also won awards for his leadership postions in the American Marketing Association and SouthWest Writers.

Before covering technology, Rob spent 10 years as publisher and owner of Chile Pepper Magazine, a national consumer food publication. He has published hundreds of poems and scores of short stories in national publications.

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