ATS Survey Reveals Skilled Labor Shortage Threatens American Industry: Nation's Largest...

PEORIA, Ill. -- America's looming skilled labor shortage is predicted to cost the country's largest manufacturers at least $100 million dollars each over the next five years, according to results of a survey commissioned by Advanced Technology Services, Inc. (ATS) and conducted by AC

In the survey of 94 senior manufacturing executives, with titles of CEO, CIO, Vice President and Plant Manager, ATS asked: Forecasts indicate that during the next five years, approximately 40 percent of your skilled labor force will retire. What do you anticipate the retirement of 40 percent of your skilled labor force will cost your company in these five years?

Of the 20 respondents with more than $1 billion in revenue, one-third predict their cost to top $100 million in the next five years. The shortage is caused by a combination of factors, including the imminent retirement of baby boomers, fewer apprenticeship programs and fewer high school graduates pursuing manufacturing skills. Companies say they will need to invest heavily in recruiting and training replacements.

"The looming skilled worker shortage is an unwelcome threat to the nation's manufacturing base that needs to be addressed at multiple levels, from better educating the next generation of factory workers to improving the public's image of plant work," said ATS President Jeffrey Owens. "Our most modern and cutting edge plants can be more productive and profitable by deploying highly skilled employees that make their production machinery run better."

ATS pioneered the factory asset service business two decades ago, and today is the leading company providing managed services for production equipment maintenance, industrial parts repair and IT infrastructure support for manufacturers. Key to ATS success is a recruitment and training program that fulfills the need for a skilled workforce.

ATS is responding to this looming crisis with a series of results-oriented steps. The company today announces the launch of a white paper, Workforce Trends: Tools for taking control of today's skilled labor shortage, providing guidance on what companies can do. Workforce Trends illustrates the benefits - immediate and long-term - to be found in taking proactive steps to recruit, train, and promote a multi-skilled labor force. This dynamic tool enumerates the steps ATS takes to satisfy two significant needs facing US industry: providing the hard-to-come by talent to work in factories; and making factories more productive so that manufacturers won't look elsewhere for cheaper production.