One year ago we noted that despite rhetoric about a "jobless recovery," the available data showed that as the United States emerged from recession, the economy was also moving-albeit slowly-toward recovering jobs. This was confirmed by 2004's ninth annual ASSEMBLY State of the Profession survey, when 30 percent of respondents said they had added staff to their assembly operations.
Today, the challenge of hiring and keeping good employees has never been greater. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM, Washington) says that one of the most protracted problems that manufacturers face is the lack of new skilled workers to operate their plants. Five years ago, in the NAM's first study on the workplace, 80 percent of manufacturers reported a shortage of qualified job candidates. This shortage still exists for both large and small companies, and the more pervasive problem now is the need for production workers, machinists and craft workers skilled enough to work in the manufacturing jobs of the 21st century.