Glenn Skena, manager, methods engineering at Hamill Manufacturing in Trafford, has had similar problems. So has Bob Kettering, manufacturing manager at DuraMetal Products Corp. in Irwin. And he's offered jobs to people, only to have them quit a few months later. That same model is being expanded to come to the aid of other manufacturing segments experiencing the same kinds of shortages. Despite the relatively high wages paid for entry-level jobs in manufacturing, however, employers are finding it difficult to find qualified applicants.
Companies point to several factors that have created a dearth of available and reliable labor.
The educational system, parents and society in general are steering students toward the academic track, they say, encouraging college as a first choice. And, say the business operators, vo-tech schools are too often a repository for poor academic achievers or students with disciplinary problems. Skena points out that vocational schools, from which he used to get nearly all of his entry-level machinists, once provided a rich pool of potential employees. This year, the school could recommend only one student out of a class of 20 to Skena for the program, afar cry from a decade ago. As heavy industry in the region wound down, it displaced manv low-skill workers.