Nearly all Minnesota manufacturers (94%) who responded to a recent survey expect employment in their company to remain the same or go up during 2020. That’s according to the Manufacturing Business Conditions Survey released yesterday by DEED and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. 

However, despite the need for new employees in manufacturing, gaps between the skills required for manufacturing jobs and the skills possessed by job candidates may make hiring difficult in some cases.  

But there are best practices for closing these skills gaps, reports DEED’s Alessia Leibert in Most In-Demand Skills in Manufacturing in the most recent edition of Minnesota Economic Trends. The article examines the skills that employers reported as hardest to find in candidates, and how employers and the educational system can work to fill these skills gaps. 

Skills requirements in manufacturing are constantly evolving as a result of rapid technological change. Both employers and the education system are facing a challenge in identifying emerging skills and ensuring workers learn them.  

The skills that employers are having the most trouble finding are taught through vocational/technical training provided either at the high school or postsecondary level.  

The good news: Even the newest technologies – like machine learning and robotics – build upon a foundation of traditional math and mechanical skills. These skills are essential to set automation up, repair and maintain it, adapt it to different programming language platforms, and analyze automated work processes.  
 
The not-so-good news: Today’s young people are not as exposed to opportunities to develop mechanical skills and hands-on problem-solving skills as previous generations were. 

Minnesota Economic Trends is the quarterly magazine from DEED’s Labor Market Information Office that provides expert analysis of the state's labor market, industries and economy.