Survey: MN manufacturers worried about finding qualified workers

by Martin Moylan, Minnesota Public Radio

ST. PAUL Minn. — A survey of Minnesota manufacturers indicates they're confident in their firms' futures, but are increasingly concerned about finding qualified workers.

About a third of manufacturing executives said they're worried about getting qualified workers, up from about 15 percent last year.

Bob Kill, president of Enterprise Minnesota, a non-profit consulting organization that helps Minnesota manufacturers, said many parents and high school students have outdated and negative impressions of manufacturing jobs.

Manufacturers are trying to change that and get more students to think about careers in manufacturing, he said.

"These are good-paying, clean-environment jobs," he said. "We've got to get past that definition that we tend to think about for manufacturing 20 to 30 years ago. That's not the case. These environments are really the same kinds of environments as office workers work in in many cases."

Graduates of two-year training programs for skilled manufacturing jobs can make $20 to $25 an hour, Kill said.