Despite jobs boost, manufacturing desperate for skilled workers
National Association of Manufacturers President Jay Timmons on the outlook for manufacturing jobs in America and the potential impact of the rising use of artificial intelligence on the job market.
American manufacturers created about 450 thousand jobs over the last two years, however there are not enough workers to fill them.
“Manufacturing is really on the rise right now,” said the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) President Jay Timmons during an interview on FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria” on Thursday. “But the problem that we have right now [is] we can’t find enough people to do the jobs that we have open.”
President Trump, on Wednesday, met with CEOs and business leaders of the newly formed American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, including Timmons, Apple CEO Tim Cook and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, at the White House. It was the first meeting of the board, which is co-chaired by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and adviser Ivanka Trump. According to Timmons, one of the topics discussed was finding ways to fill the thousands of job openings in manufacturing right now, that are based on technology and robotic intelligence.
“We need people with the skills necessary to do those jobs,” he said, adding, “I don’t think we are doing that well enough.”
What’s more, Timmons said that over the next decade, millions of more jobs could be vacant unless this is addressed.
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“The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte have studied this problem for many years. Their latest data indicate that we are going to have to hire… 4.6 million people over the course of the next 10 years but on the trajectory that we are currently on, 2.4 million of those jobs will go unfilled.”
Timmons said the NAM is currently working with higher-education institutions and elementary schools to try and align the curriculum for the jobs of the future.