Workforce and Education

Speaking of the importance of flexibility, a Harvard Business Review survey of 5,700 onsite US workers in industries like manufacturing, transportation and health care found a mismatch between the flexibility options that companies provide and what employees actually want.

What companies are offering: The most common flexibility options that onsite workers reported were relaxed dress code (55%), flexible start and end times (33%) and choice over hours they worked (31%).

What onsite workers want: When asked what flexibility options they would change jobs to get, onsite workers reported increased paid time off or vacation time (57%) and four-day work weeks (44%).

Employee engagement matters: People with engaging work and one week of vacation report 25% higher well-being than actively disengaged workers who have six or more weeks of vacation, according to Gallup research.

• Among those with fully onsite work responsibilities, Gallup finds that those with a four-day work week report lower active disengagement and higher overall well-being.

As demand for raw materials escalates, mining companies in the U.S. are struggling to find enough workers to keep up, reports The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

What’s happening: The U.S. is advancing its green-energy transition while also developing new domestic sources of minerals to decrease reliance on China.

Workforce shortage: “The overall industry’s seasonally adjusted head count shrank by nearly 39% since 1990 … according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

• While colleges and universities—not to mention companies themselves—are working to fill the gap, they are not turning out new workers fast enough.
• “‘The problem is that talent isn’t lying around waiting to be paid more—there just isn’t enough of it,’ said Andrea Brickey, an associate professor of mining engineering and management at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.”

Get help: If you are searching for ways to attract or upskill workers, the Manufacturing Institute (the NAM’s 501(c)3 workforce development and education affiliate) has you covered. It can also help you start preparing now for manufacturing’s biggest opportunity to reach young people and prospective workers: MFG Day.

As job growth has risen in industries that don’t require college degrees, high school graduates are increasingly going directly into the workforce, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

The big number: “The college enrollment rate for recent U.S. high school graduates, ages 16 to 24, has declined to 62% last year from 66.2% in 2019.”

• At the same time, the unemployment rate for teenage workers fell to a 70-year low of 9.2% last month.

What’s happening: High school graduates are turning toward jobs that offer competitive wages, particularly in industries like manufacturing, without requiring a pricy degree beforehand.

• For example, machinists earn $23.32 an hour, above the national median wage of $22.26 an hour.
• “If you can get [a job] without a B.A. and with decent wage growth, why go get a B.A.?” as ZipRecruiter Chief Economist Julia Pollak put it.

Demand for training: Meanwhile, more young people are pursuing other forms of job training.

• “The number of apprentices has increased by more than 50%.”
• The changing economy has led to wider acceptance of forgoing college, as employers’ interest in hiring high school graduates has grown, according to Steve Boden, a supervisor at Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools.

What we’re doing: The Manufacturing Institute, the NAM’s 501(c)3 workforce development and education affiliate, has been training students so they can enter rewarding career paths that do not require degrees.

• FAME, founded by Toyota in 2010 and currently operated by the MI, is a work/study career pathway program that provides education, training and certifications for the Advanced Manufacturing Technician occupational track.
• If you are interested in understanding the FAME model of skills or what it takes to join or start a chapter, sign up for an informational session here.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The NAM is leading a coalition of business groups in advocating against a potential new overtime rule from the Department of Labor.

The background: The current overtime rule, part of the Fair Labor Standards Act, mandates that employees must receive overtime pay of at least time and a half for hours worked over 40 in a workweek.

• However, it contains certain exemptions for white-collar workers. If an employee makes a minimum amount of money or is classified as an executive, administrator or professional, they are exempt from overtime pay.

The new rule: The new rule is expected to raise the salary threshold from the current $35,568 per year.

• ​​​​​​​The change would potentially cause challenges for employers, as well as for employees who have worked to advance themselves away from hourly jobs and into salaried company positions, as the NAM has long argued.
• In addition, the widespread adoption of hybrid work brought about by the pandemic “makes compliance with potential changes to the white-collar exemptions measurably more difficult,” the coalition pointed out. New regulations may force employers to restrict these work arrangements that many workers value highly.

The last word: As the coalition told the Department of Labor, “Many businesses are not well-positioned to absorb new labor costs associated with changes to the overtime pay regulations, and such changes would only exacerbate the difficulties businesses are currently facing”—including inflation, supply chain disruptions and the aftereffects of the pandemic.

When service members leave the military, manufacturers are quick to say: “Come on over!” Military skills are usually a great match for manufacturing careers, which require attention to detail, technical abilities and creative thinking. And there’s no better matchmaker than the Manufacturing Institute’s Heroes MAKE America initiative, which since 2018 has been offering training certification programs and career courses to transitioning service members and veterans.

Today, HMA not only serves service members on military installations across the country but has also expanded its reach via a virtual training program.

Widening the reach: Now in its second year, the virtual training program has allowed HMA to impact service members on a national scale.

• For the first time, members from four branches—Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy—are participating in the same class at the same time.
• Additionally, the geographic range of participants has increased to comprise students located far and wide, including in Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Kansas and Kentucky.
• The program has reached more than 120,000 prospective students through local transition assistance, HMA’s LinkedIn and Facebook presence and the SkillBridge website.

How it works: HMA partnered with Texas State Technical College to create a virtual nine-week training and certification program.

• Participants earn nationally portable, industry-recognized Certified Production Technician certification as well as an OSHA 10 certification.
• Through Heroes Connect, HMA also partners with sponsors like Johnson & Johnson, The Caterpillar Foundation, Amazon, Howmet Aerospace, WestRock, Saint-Gobain, Atlas Copco, Cargill, FUCHS Lubricants Company, C.H. Guenther & Sons, Honda Foundation, Niagara Bottling and the NAFEM, PPI and SEMI Associations to connect program graduates and members of the military community with manufacturers.

What we’re saying: “It’s exciting to see members from four branches of the military all in one virtual classroom together,” said Heroes MAKE America Senior Program Manager Katie Bowerman. “There’s a lot of strength in that kind of diversity.”

Spread the word: Do you have jobs for which HMA students might qualify, or know of a service member who would want to join the program? The HMA virtual program is open to any transitioning service member who is in their last six months of active-duty service, as well as to veteran and active-duty military spouses. For more information, contact [email protected].

When service members leave the military, manufacturers are quick to say: “Come on over!” Military skills are usually a great match for manufacturing careers, which require attention to detail, technical abilities and creative thinking. And there’s no better matchmaker than the Manufacturing Institute’s Heroes MAKE America initiative, which since 2018 has been offering training certification programs and career courses to transitioning service members and veterans.

Today, HMA not only serves service members on military installations across the country but also has expanded its reach via a virtual training program.

Widening the reach: Now in its second year, the virtual training program has allowed HMA to impact service members on a national scale.

• For the first time, members from four branches—Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy—are participating in the same class at the same time.
• Additionally, the geographic range of participants has increased to comprise students located far and wide, including in Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Kansas and Kentucky.
• The program has reached more than 120,000 prospective students through local transition assistance, HMA’s LinkedIn and Facebook presence and the SkillBridge website.

How it works: HMA partnered with Texas State Technical College to create a virtual nine-week training and certification program.

• Participants earn nationally portable, industry-recognized Certified Production Technician certification as well as an OSHA 10 certification.
• Through Heroes Connect, HMA also partners with sponsors like Johnson & Johnson, The Caterpillar Foundation, Amazon, Howmet Aerospace, WestRock, Saint-Gobain, Atlas Copco, Cargill, FUCHS Lubricants Company, C.H. Guenther & Sons, Honda Foundation, Niagara Bottling and the NAFEM, PPI and SEMI associations to connect program graduates and members of the military community with manufacturers.

Read the full story here.

Most people are satisfied with their jobs, according to a Washington Post–Ipsos poll about what workers want, The Washington Post (subscription) reports.

What’s going on: Following the pandemic and the Great Resignation, “about 8 in 10 workers are satisfied with their jobs, even as over 6 in 10 say work is stressful,” according to the survey of 1,148 workers ages 18 to 64.

• “While desire to work from home is a priority for some workers, pay, having a good boss or manager and other aspects of a job rank higher.”

Key takeaways: The poll had several notable findings, including the following:

• People prize remote work: Four in 10 respondents said their jobs can be done remotely. “Desire to work outside the office is high among remote-capable workers, with about 7 in 10 saying they’d choose to work from home “all of the time” (37 percent) or “most of the time” (35 percent).”
• Pay and bosses matter: “When asked to rank the most important factors in a job, 45 percent put pay in the top slot. Having a good boss comes in second, with 14 percent of workers ranking it as the most important.”
• The Gen Z difference: Gen Z and younger millennial workers prize promotion and advancement opportunities more highly than do their older counterparts.
• Friends at work: Some 55% of respondents said they have “close friendships” with coworkers.

The stress factor: “Stress varies sharply by age, with Gen Z workers the least likely to say their jobs are stressful (43 percent), compared to 61 percent of younger millennials 27-to-34 years old, 67 percent of 35-to-49-year-olds and 66 percent of workers 50-to-64 years old.”

Immigrants helped fill worker shortages last year, providing 60% of workforce growth according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, reports Bloomberg Government (subscription).

The data: “Roughly 1.8 million foreign-born workers joined the labor force in 2022, compared with 1.3 million native-born ones, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data published Thursday.”

• “The nation’s nearly 31 million immigrant workers now make up 18.5% of the labor force, close to a record-high share and above pre-Covid levels.”

Filling the gap: Immigrants are taking more roles in industries experiencing labor shortages, as compared to before the pandemic.

• “Almost 10% of immigrant workers had jobs in construction last year, up from 9.1% in 2019, according to the BLS. The share of foreign-born workers in health-care support occupations also increased.”

The NAM says: “With over 800,000 job openings in manufacturing over the past 12 months, manufacturers know immigration is an essential part of the workforce solution to build a stronger, more competitive America, and that’s why the NAM is unrelenting in leveraging every opportunity to advance our immigration plan ‘A Way Forward’ with key Hill and administration leaders and the press,” said NAM Director of Human Resources and Innovation Policy Julia Bogue.

A record number of employee drug tests are showing positive results for marijuana, The Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports, as legalization becomes more prevalent.

The numbers: “Of the more than 6 million general workforce tests that Quest screened for marijuana in 2022, 4.3% came back positive, up from 3.9% the prior year. That is the largest marijuana positivity rate since 1997.”

More alarming: As many tests can pick up marijuana use from days or weeks prior, a positive test doesn’t necessarily indicate impairment on the job. However…

• “The percentage of employees that tested positive for marijuana following an on-the-job accident rose to 7.3% in 2022, an increase of 9% compared with the prior year.”
• “From 2012 to 2022, post-accident marijuana positive test rates tripled, tracking with widening legalization.”

On the positive side: “Positivity rates last year for certain classes of opioids and barbiturates declined.”

The legal tangle: Differing marijuana regulations across the U.S. have created a headache for employers trying to enact workplace policies.

• That’s why the NAM’s Legal Center hosted a panel on marijuana policy at its first Manufacturing Legal Summit back in November.

Interested in learning more? The next NAM summit, which convenes in-house counsel from manufacturing companies as well as outside experts, will be Nov. 6–7 in Washington, D.C. Registration has just opened, and you can sign up here.

More small businesses are pulling back on hiring, The Wall Street Journal (subscription) reports.

What’s going on: “The portion of small-business owners who expect to expand their workforce over the next year was below 50% for the second month in a row in May, hitting the lowest level since June 2020, during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a recent survey conducted for The Wall Street Journal.”

• Even as the economy shows signs of a slowdown, applicant pay expectations remain high—but small-business owners are “less willing to pay up for talent” as they respond to belt tightening by their customers.

The data: In March, U.S. job openings fell to their lowest level in almost two years, and the number of layoffs increased.

• However, employers added 253,000 jobs in April, mostly on the strength of service-sector gains.

What it means: “‘There is no question that CEOs are downshifting into a slowing economy,’ said Vistage chief research officer Joe Galvin. Despite caution about adding additional workers, ‘no one is willing to shed the hard-earned and expensive employees they hired,’ Mr. Galvin said. Entrepreneurs often still struggle to fill openings when workers leave, he added.”