The Skills Gap

The skills gap—a term used to describe the difference between the level of training that is required within a job and the training, or lack thereof, that workers actually possess—has greatly affected the quality and economy within the manufacturing industry. A report crafted by the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte stated, "Over the next decade, nearly three and a half million manufacturing jobs likely need to be filled and the skills gap is expected to result in 2 million of those jobs going unfilled." The reasons behind these drastic changes are numerous, but mostly coincide with employers leaving out training hours because of financial repercussions and manufacturing jobs receiving lowered wages over the years.

Source

An article titled "Why America Has a Shortage of Skilled Workers" outlines the improvements that need to be made withing the manufacturing industry for positive change to occur:

1. Invest in training
2. Recalculate the ROI of training
3. Stop the pursuit of low-cost labor
4. Demonstrate that manufacturing jobs are secure 

Although the number of skilled manufacturing jobs are meant to decline, one can only hope that the industry bounces back in time to revive what has been lost.