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backGLOBALtalk April, 2012

USA: Workers in demand; skills in short supply

Dennis Winslow points to a stack of resumes in his office. He’s read through plenty of them and found seemingly decent people desperate for work. Often, their education and work experience impress, but there’s one glitch.

Winslow needs to hire machinists, quality control inspectors and such for his factory. Not experienced salespeople, office personnel and educators.

“These resumes pull at your heartstrings,” said Winslow, owner of Win-Tech Inc., a Kennesaw manufacturer for the defense and aerospace industries. “They want to work, but they don’t have the skills I am looking for.”

In Georgia and across the country, shops such as Winslow’s face a conundrum. They’ve experienced a jump in business, but the lack of a skilled workforce to draw on has hampered operations.

Experts call the labor gap severe. The situation has been deemed critical by some state officials in Georgia.

Yet this workforce disparity sounds familiar. Think 1989. This headline appeared on a staff article in The Atlanta Journal and Constitution: “A severe shortage of skilled machinists is slowing the expansion of U.S. industry.”

Then, like now, toolmakers were getting older, retiring. Like now, some of the fastest-growing jobs were in skilled trades that required post-high school training, though not necessarily four years of college. And the mismatch of skills hurt hiring then just like now.

Skilled trades often lack the allure of a higher education. Just not sexy enough. Decades of offshoring and recessions in the 1980s shrunk the talent pool, too. Vocational institutions are hard-pressed to offer sizeable training programs due to austerity budgets.

Michael Thurmond, the former state labor commissioner, asks, “The real question is, who should be responsible for the training. Is it the private sector or is it the college or technical school? Or should it be equally shared? [Educational institutions] have downsized, and the money companies used to invest in training has hit the budget knife. Everybody’s frustrated.”

Winslow admits his industry needs to react proactively. Figure out a way, he said, to offer training in “unique skills” that turn out craftsmen familiar with a shop floor.

“I’m not looking for the government to solve this,” he told me. “We as an industry are a few years behind where we need to be on chasing this thing, and it’s a shame.”

Before I leave, Winslow, while sympathetic to the unemployed, asks that I word his situation carefully.

Yes, the hiring sign is out at Win-Tech, but only for those with the proper skills.

These days, it’s hard to find the talent he needs.

Source: AJC.com - GAI

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