NACFAM: Manufacturing Sector Challenged by Growing Skills Gap

Nearly 60 percent of the new jobs in the knowledge-based economy of the early 21st century will require skills that are held by just 20 percent of the present workforce, states a new report released by the National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing (NACFAM). The Case for Enhancing American Workforce Skills examines a growing skills gap in the nation's manufacturing sector and the problems employers have in finding skilled workers able to deal with technological changes in the workplace.

The skills gap is deepening at a time when manufacturing workers are increasingly being laid off — since 1999, more than two million have lost their jobs. Industry and government need to join forces to make substantial improvements in workforce education and training programs and to incentivize American workers to keep pace with technological change by continually improving their skills, NACFAM concludes.

The Case for Enhancing American Workforce Skills offers these findings:

• The enhancement of workforce skills and knowledge would help the nation sustain higher levels of productivity growth and innovation.
• The shortage of skilled workers continues to limit sales, inhibit productivity improvements and pose a major barrier to growth. If current trends prevail, this shortage will become deeper in the future.
• Federal, state and local responses indicate a shift away from technical education toward enhanced academic preparation. Federal support has also waned for building a national system of industry-led skills standards that would create a larger pool of skilled and knowledgeable workers required for technology-based growth and innovations.
• Employers want stronger guarantees that workers have both academic and technical skills and knowledge. Small businesses in particular are increasingly looking for workers with industry-led certifications.

NACFAM's report offers no specific public policy recommendations; however, the new research complements a policy paper published in June by the nonprofit. In that paper, Industrial Transformation: Key to Sustaining the Productivity Boom, four recommendations were given to help workers keep pace with technological change (see the June 6 issue of the Digest):

• Provide a tax incentive for technical re-training over a worker's career;
• Integrate academic and technical/applied learning into the Perkins Act reauthorization;
• Integrate industry-led skill standards into education and training programs under the Workforce Investment Act reauthorization; and,
• Accelerate development of certification systems based upon nationwide, industry-led skill standards.

NACFAM was established in 1989 to enhance the productivity of all tiers of U.S.-based manufacturing. The Case for Enhancing American Workforce Skills is available for purchase at http://www.nacfam.org/.