The Houston Business Journal’s Jon Prior reported great news for the manufacturing jobs sector last week. According to his article, Texas may have made it through the worst of oil bust as the job creation rate is actually surpassing the rest of America’s job growth. It’s true, according to the article above and beyond the summer hiring increases, “new hiring is expected to increase by 2.3 percent in the back half of the year. Future outlook data on Texas manufacturing nearly quadrupled in September, in a sign production is expected to expand.” With this dramatically positive outlook on the horizon, it’s time for recruiters to increase efforts to fill newly created and recently revived manufacturing jobs.
Manufacturing jobs directly impact our whole economy, so really, when we report that manufacturing is on the upswing, what we mean is the economy is headed for sunnier days. According to the National Association of Manufacturers:
- In the most recent data, manufacturers contributed $2.17 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2015.
- For every $1.00 spent in manufacturing, another $1.81 is added to the economy.
- There are currently 12.3 million manufacturing workers in the United States, accounting for 9 percent of the workforce.
- Manufacturers in the United States perform more than three-quarters of all private-sector research and development (R&D) in the nation, driving more innovation than any other sector.
In addition, it is important that manufacturing recruiters stay up-to-date on which positions they will need to compete the hardest to fill. According to CareerBuilder in 2014, those positions were as follows:
- Machinist
- Mechanical engineering technician
- CNC machine tool operator
- Welder
- Electronics assembler
- Human Resources Generalist
And, according to Gwen Morgan’s article, 5 Jobs That Will Be The Hardest To Fill In 2025, based on the upcoming labor shortage, those assertions still hold true. In particular, Gwen’s article mentioned that skilled trades including electricians and machinists as well as manufacturing, which will soon face a shortage of 2 million workers by the year 2020 would be hard-to-fill.
Doing some research to find talent that is in or has previous worked within the manufacturing sector is a solid starting point for recruiters. You can conduct this research via channels such as candidate Linkedin feeds and other networks that do profile targeting. We would also encourage recruiters to make a strong effort build lasting relationships that will serve the companies they recruit for in the long-term as the economy continues to bounce back.
--
Did you like this article? There’s more where it came from! Simply subscribe to receive our blogs and you will receive them right in your inbox.
