A recent survey conducted by MadeInDaytonBlog.Com indicates that many manufacturing jobs in the Dayton area remain unfilled, despite large numbers of people looking for work.
The blog was started back in December as a clearinghouse for local manufacturers to communicate needs and exchange ideas. More than a hundred companies responded to the survey and said they have jobs that have remained unfilled – and many say the disconnect between available jobs and the unemployed comes down to skills.
Steve Staub co-founded the blog and initiated the survey. He says “A lot of people have assumed that manufacturing industry is dead; when GM left town and some of the companies like that they say, “Oh there’s nothing here anymore,” when in reality we make more in this country today that we ever have. Now we’re doing it with less people and our people are more skilled than they used to be.” Staub adds that companies “no longer need a guy with no skills hanging a door on a hook as it comes dow the assembly line, we need somebody with good common sense and good math skills that is a problem solver.”
Staub also says that companies are using less traditional, more economical ways of advertising open positions, like “free publications, and a lot of people have commented when they filled out that they just quit advertising and they spent a lot of money on Monster and the newspapers and just quit; trying to get by with what they got, but they still have these open positions, they’re just waiting for people to show up.”
With just over 100 companies indicating close to 700 open positions in the sample survey, Steve Staub believes there may be thousands of available manufacturing jobs in the region. His company, Staub Manufacturing Solutions, is now working with other local businesses to figure out better ways to get those positions filled.
