Connecticut’s aging manufacturing workforce lacks enough up-and-coming replacements with the basic skills necessary to match the work quality of their predecessors, a CBIA survey says.
The Connecticut Business & Industry Association’s says the median manufacturing worker’s age is now over 40 years.
But despite the meek economic recovery, manufacturers report they are concerned about finding and attracting skilled labor, the survey found. They are also worried about the lack of basic math, writing, and employability skills of entry-level employees and soft leadership skills of mid-level managers.
The top five most difficult positions to fill:
- CNC programmers (87 percent)
- Tool and die makers (85 percent)
- CNC machinists (79 percent)
- CAD/CAM technicians (78 percent)
- Engineers (64 percent)
“In terms of workforce development, manufacturers are at a critical juncture,” says Judith K. Resnick, executive director of CBIA’s Education Foundation. “They face an exodus of mid- and senior-level employees who will take with them longstanding institutional knowledge and experience; at the same time, many incoming workers do not appear to have critical basic employability skills to replace them.”
The vast majority of manufacturers hire from within Connecticut. More than half (51 percent) hired graduates from Connecticut technical high schools, and 44 percent from traditional high schools. Over 30 percent also reported hiring from community colleges-both certificate-program graduates (33 percent) and associate-degree graduates (32 percent). Thirty-one percent report hiring graduates from the state university system.
These employers are considerably more satisfied with graduates of technical high schools (61 percent) versus graduates of traditional high schools (28 percent).
Eighty percent of manufacturers are most satisfied with graduates of four-year private colleges and universities, followed by graduates of the state university system (78 percent), private occupational schools (77 percent), community colleges (associate degree-76 percent), and major universities (74 percent).
