Economy

FMA: Fabricators' Top Concern? Finding Skilled Workers

October 25, 2019

Finding skilled workers is the top concern among respondents to The Fabricator’s 2019 “What Keeps You Up at Night?” survey.

Published by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, the survey asked fabrication company executives to rank their concerns from a list that included availability of credit, availability of skilled workers, consolidation of competition and customers, cost of raw materials, economy, erosion of manufacturing as a viable career choice, foreign competition, government regulations/policy/tariffs, growth of federal government debt, health care costs, lack of business strategy, and meeting increased customer expectations. Forty-five percent listed “availability of skilled workers” as a top concern, the highest percentage since this issue started dominating this survey question in 2011, reported the FMA.

Attracting young people to careers in manufacturing is an ongoing challenge and, with unemployment so low, the lack of manpower poses a threat to industry growth. Fifty-four percent of the survey respondents said they were going to devote major resources to finding and retaining skilled labor over the next three to five years.

Read the full report at: Where’s the Next Generation of Fabricators?