Industry Week: Wanted: A Few Good (Female) Machinists, Welders to Fill the Skills Gap
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Ask a plant manager or manufacturing CEO where the job openings are, and there’s a good chance the titles “machinist” and “welder” will crop up. Those occupations ranked near the top of hardest-to-fill jobs in IndustryWeek’s Salary Survey this year, along with other “middle-skill” occupations—those requiring more education than a high school diploma but less than a college degree—like industrial maintenance and quality specialists.
And there’s an overall sense the job shortages aren’t going away: 67% of the survey respondents said they’ve struggled to fill a position in the past year due to a lack of skilled candidates, and 78% said their aging workforce is a concern.
But according to a new report sponsored by JP Morgan Chase and conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, manufacturers may be overlooking a group in plain sight for those unfilled jobs: Women who’ve already mastered lower-paying occupations that require similar skills and abilities as higher-paying jobs.