Building Jobs - In Manufacturing

(CBS)  In the sinking economy, where can Americans turn for a job that pays well? CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports manufacturers are looking for employees with skills.

Employees at Bison Gear and Engineering makes motors for everything from dialysis machines to ice-cream makers. The company has all the orders it can fill. What it can't fill is jobs.

"We have about a half-a-dozen openings right now," said Bison owner Ron Bullock. "The business is there, and we have the capacity to expand it."

Bison isn't alone. With half the nation's 14 million manufacturing workers nearing retirement, 90 percent of America's manufacturers say they are short qualified workers.

Amazingly these "help wanted" signs are going up at a time when the United States is hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs. Nearly 3 million have been lost since President Bush took office in 2001.

The jobs going overseas, manufacturers say, are largely the low-skill assembly line kind. Those that remain are high-skilled, high-tech, and high-paying - around $60,000 a year plus benefits.

"Every one of these machine tools that we use is about the price of a Ferrari," Bullock said. "So you need to have good computer skills if you're gonna work in high-tech manufacturing today."

But many kids coming out of high school either aren't good enough in math and science ... or aren't interested.

"Have you ever considered a job in manufacturing?" Bowers asked Justin Peterson.

"I haven't," he said. "I figured that was a kind of out-of-date career path."

Another student said, "I'm a talker, not a worker."

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Blog: Hey, Kids: Change The World ... Through Manufacturing?

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To deepen the labor pool, the industry is going into schools to update both its image and the curriculum.

What do we stand to lose by not having workers ready to step in?

"More and more companies who I'm talking to are not moving now for cheap labor," said Mark Meyer, a professor at the College of DuPage. "They're moving due to a lack of a … labor force that can come in and do it."

High-tech laborer Jeremy Rusiecki says he feels secure even in these insecure times.

"For myself, I see it as a good career and good money and, having an American Dream with this job," Rusiecki said.

Building his future around a job most Americans thought was thing of the past.

[ianlou]

I think the jobs this article is referring to are Controls Engineering and Machine Engineering positions: designing, building and programming automated manufacturing systems like the stuff you see on TV like "Modern Marvels" and "How It Is Made". Many of these jobs involve producing automated machines in America and installing them in places like Mexico and China.
Great work if you don''t mind travelling.

[bookwerm314]

Part of the "blame" for this lack of workers is to be assigned to stupidity by school boards ENDING vocational track options in High School! Not EVERYONE needs to go, nor should go, to college. We have had huge diploma inflation, expecting too many folks to go to college.. it is a huge time hit, a huge cost hit, and a huge industry hit to not let High School kids who want to go vocational do so! Machining classes in Denver went from 20 kids to 6 kids in the last 10 yrs, as the kids just can''t fit in the classes.. to many "required" courses that have NO relevancy to their planned careers.. there is what we are told, and then there is what is real.. you can do VERY well without a college degree.. plumbing, machining, on and on.. HVAC guys make more than engineers! But is this reflected in what is being produced by high schools? Not at all!

Vote OUT your school board, and vote in a new one that supports dual track HIGH SCHOOL! Let kids become diesel mechanics.. we can get by fine as a society with one less Business Analyst, if we get one more Mechanic.. we need the latter much more than the former. The schools are like lemmings, plunging America off of a cliff!

[fettkonserv]

Atrium Windows and Doors (Made in America by foreign Nationals)
The Shrub at his finest.
Want to wake them all up let your house, car payments, insurance policy''s go. Become homeless for a couple years it may sound crazy but it is more effective than anything else so far......Look at the Economy so far.
Stop having children their just future slaves for the RICH.

[ambrosegirl8]

bookman081, there are many well-paying job in the oil industry in western ND and eastern MT right now; lots of younger single guys are coming to do that and making really good money. www.jobsnd.com would be a good place to start. (And it''s not cold here all the time!)

[memory2008]

It is not fair the americans have to deal with the unemployment and immigrants are keeping ours jobs working with fake ssn and green cards and Imigration doesn''t do nothing about it. And it seams that is not stoping any time soon. I Know people who went through immigration for a change of status and not even them can get a job.

[bookman081]

I would like to know how I can get one of these jobs and would like to be notified on how to get in touch with someone to help me. I''m 27 years old and I live in a rural part of Southeastern Kentucky where there aren''t any jobs at all to get. I need help. I''m not married and I don''t have any kinds and I would be willing to go anywhere to get a job.

[forthepeopl1]

HERE IS THE TRAITOR SENDING YOUR JOBS OVERSEAS....

AP) Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain''s presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years.

Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain''s campaign. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain''s national finance chairman.

EADS is the parent company of Airbus, which teamed up with U.S.-based Northrop Grumman Corp. to win the lucrative aerial refueling contract on Feb. 29. Boeing Co. Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney said in a statement Monday that the Chicago-based aerospace company %u201Cfound serious flaws in the process that we believe warrant appeal.%u201D

McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in waiting, has been a key figure in the Pentagon''s yearslong attempt to complete a deal on the tanker. McCain helped block an earlier tanker contract with Boeing and prodded the Pentagon in 2006 to develop bidding procedures that did not exclude Airbus.

[adri123glad]

Jobs?What jobs?I have been out of work for nearly six months and can not find a job that will pay me enough to pay my mortgage let alone eat.You talk about all these manufacturing jobs but there aren''t any on-line that I have seen.Apparently the jobs that are listed on-line aren''t there either.They are just a bunch of agencies trying to get people in their doors but then do nothing for them.I am currently registered with 3 agencies and haven''t had one offer yet.In the past 6 months,I have easily sent out 500 resume''s with cover letters tweaked to perfection and had 3 interviews. One offered me a position for less than I told them I would accept.One said I would be recommended for a 2nd interview.I have called and written to find out when but they don''t even call me back.This is a large Pharmeceutical co in So Cal and the job is still listed on CalJobs.com.The last I just had and am hopeful.As far as teaching our kids in HS,they need to teach them how to read first.My high schooler graduated with a 6th grade reading level and the teachers blame me even though they have the teaching degree.

[iammyownboss]

Regarding Wed''s segment about Tupperware. I am also in the direct selling business, and was glad to see that focus. It is really accurate, esp about the incredible perks. I would, however, preferred to have seen an unbiased version showing the direct selling business as a whole, and included some facts showing new and established companies, and industry numbers as a whole. Showing Tupperware exclusively was incredibly myopic. CBS, please consider fleshing this story out, as there is a lot that was not covered that is well-worth mentioning, including the fact that all DS companies are now hiring!

[cbs7sisters]

PART I

I am the Outreach Coordinator for the University of Pittsburgh''s Mfg. Assistance Center (www.mac.pitt.edu / 412-826-3531), part of the Swanson School of Engineering''s Industrial Engineering Department. I see first-hand that a majority of manufacturers are desperate for machinists, welders, fabricators, & employees with increasing skills & responsibilities.

Mfg. forms the stronger %u201CWe Make It%u201D portion of the U.S. economy, bringing in money from foreign countries, instead of the weaker %u201CWe Consume It%u201D portion which involves trading money back and forth between Americans or sending money to foreign countries for their products and services. Our entire view of mfg. needs to change, along with support mechanisms for mfg..

What many people do not know is that mfg. is both "high-tech" & %u201Clow-tech%u201D. The majority of modern mfg. equipment is computer-controlled, requiring operators with a wide range of skills in problem-solving, programming, math & material science while low-tech mfg. processes are still required for prototyping before high-tech products can be automated and mass produced. Both forms of mfg. are needed and in wide use today.

Public awareness, train. & networking are three key components required to solve the current labor shortage in mfg.. Part II of this discussion includes a few of solutions to address this situation.