Dive Brief:
- Manufacturers in western Michigan are hosting tour events for more than 1,000 students as well as community open houses this week as part of the national Manufacturing Day movement, The Holland Sentinel reports.
- The events will give visitors a look at several facilities and career paths, The Holland Sentinel said. The list of participating employers includes GNS America, Tennant Company, Bodycote Thermal Processing and Code Blue Corp. Manufacturing Day occurs annually in the U.S. on the first Friday of October, according to the organizational website. It is produced by the National Association of Manufacturers.
- The western Michigan area has experienced rapid growth in manufacturing, The Holland Sentinel said, with more than 38,000 jobs added in the sector since 2009. In all, the industry's jobs account for 20% of all jobs in the region, according to research cited by the newspaper.
Dive Insight:
Manufacturing centers across the U.S. are rethinking the way the industry approaches recruitment. New initiatives include those that pair businesses with educators, community groups, governments and NGOs, and industry employers are targeting young people in order to build a candidate pipeline for the future.
Those in Michigan are far from the only ones looking to opening facilities in order to broaden awareness of manufacturing careers. In neighboring Wisconsin, Foxconn made news with the opening of its new manufacturing facility, which will be staffed by a reported 13,000 workers. The sheer size of that demand has left Foxconn struggling to fill vacancies while operating in a state with an unemployment rate of less than 3%.
Creative solutions like apprenticeships may provide answers for manufacturers, as will shifting some of the work to automated solutions. It's anticipated the next three years will see a boom in robotics as businesses struggle to maintain productivity in a shrinking talent market.