According to the New York Times, manufacturers are desperate to hire workers again. In Cleveland, where 40,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during the Great Recession, only 4,500 jobs have been added since the first of this year. More would have been added if manufacturers could find qualified applicants. In one company, six machinests are urgently needed to run computer numerical control machines. Fifty people applied for these jobs, but none were qualified. None!
Who’s kidding whom here? There are 2.5 million unemployed workers, many of them having held manufacturing jobs. None of them are qualified for the retooled manufacturers of 2010? We can assume one of three things: (1) the laid-off workers were dunces; (2) manufacturing has changed so dramatically so quickly that qualified employees can’t be found, even for urgently needed jobs; or (3) the new hiring needs of manufacturers are blown way out of proportion.
The Times article says that that today’s manufacturing jobs require employees who can operate sophisticated computerized machinery, follow complex blueprints, and demonstrate higher math proficiency than was previously required for assembly-line workers. Universities, community colleges, and trade schools don’t produce enough of these needed workers. And none of the laid-off manufacturing employees are qualified. Let’s see. Young people come from schools. The laid-off, suddenly ill-equipped, employees are undoubtedly quite a bit older.
Age discrimination? Perhaps. But the very next day, the Times published another article telling the real story. To the extent there has been any recovery in recent months, it has now slowed because of weak job creation. Those manufacturing jobs written about the day before are so new they don’t exist. We’re still in the middle of a recession. A cautionary note. If you’re using the recession to restructure your jobs, make sure the changes are legitimate; don’t automatically assume that your laid-off employees are unqualified; and take a hard look at the ages of the employees you end up with.