Data-driven manufacturing jobs are on the rise

By Karen Hanna 

Terry Iverson, the former third-generation owner of an Illinois machine tool distributor, hails from a family that’s made their mark on American manufacturing.  

You’ll find phrases like “asbestos spinner,” “Bakelite molder,” “salvationist,” “catstitcher” and “roving boy (or girl)” among the manufacturing professions listed In U.S. Census reports from around the time his grandfather established Iverson & Co. in 1925.  

What you won’t see are emerging data scientists, optimizers or automation experts. Your grandfather’s manufacturing plant is gone — in many cases, thankfully so — and as manufacturing enthusiasts like Iverson want people to know, it’s time to look to the future.  

"Over the years, what has happened is that there’s been a mesh of the mechanical and mechanized world meshing with the computerized and digital world,” said Iverson, the founder and CEO of CHAMPION Now!, a nonprofit that promotes manufacturing careers to young people. “So, both skill sets have to be employed to be able to be successful.” 

But in an era when manufacturers have struggled to find workers, a new issue is coming into focus: There’s a growing gap between the skills that have been required in the manufacturing sector and what might be needed in the years ahead. 

Reaching for higher-tech jobs 

Data is transforming industry, and that’s spurring growing interest in higher-tech manufacturing titles, according to workforce experts. 

“Manufacturing is becoming just as much as of a digital industry as a physical one, and we're seeing that data analytics are becoming a higher-sought-after [skill], because that's a big value proposition for productivity,” said consultant Jake Hall, who as the self-dubbed “Manufacturing Millennial” travels widely promoting technology and manufacturing opportunities for younger workers. 

Unfortunately, for people with the high-tech skills manufacturing increasingly demands, the field doesn’t carry much cachet, observed Grant Richards, a professor in Purdue University’s School of Engineering Technology. 

“We've had companies come in, Fortune 500 companies, and realize that they just need to come up with entirely new job descriptions and job titles because if they keep going out and trying to recruit for positions, they’re not wildly attractive, and they’re just not the draw that they used to be,” he said. 

Offering opportunities for creativity, teamwork and continuous learning, positions developed to fully exploit Industry 4.0 technologies and data are dynamic and demand a multidisciplinary approach, he said.  

Leveraging smart manufacturing requires deep technical understanding — from understanding the physics of how sensors work to being able to make informed decisions based on the data they deliver. As importantly, though, manufacturing employees in these roles need the interpersonal skills to communicate what needs to be done and why, said Richards, who teaches classes geared toward a relatively new major — smart manufacturing.  

“To make it smart, you have to connect things that probably weren’t connected before,” he said. “To get that information to flow, you probably have to augment whatever’s there with additional sensors and technologies. And once you do all those things, then you expose yourself to cybersecurity challenges. And then once you have this data, then you need to figure out how to do something useful with it. And so you need to start to develop some visibility. You need to develop some models around it, and really, then you start to get the value out of these technologies.” 

Emerging career paths related to such skills include jobs as talent intelligence analysts, data wranglers and vulnerability management engineers, according to Dice, an online platform for tech jobs. Other on-the-rise titles include process engineers, automation specialists, robotics technicians and data analysts, said Kelli Stanton, VP of North American sales for staffing agency Manpower. 

“Most of these job titles in high demand that are also more unique to manufacturing are considered high-tech due to their focus on advanced technologies, specialized skills or cutting-edge innovations,” Dice CTO Paul Farnsworth said. “These roles are integral to industries like manufacturing as they adopt technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence, data analytics and cloud computing.” 

Fitting the profile  

As the IT director at SAY Plastics, a McSherrystown, Pa., thermoformer, Bobby May is a plastics manufacturing professional who has straddled both the production and IT worlds. Having once managed digital sales for a couple car lots, he’s also worked for a pretzel factory as an oven operator.  

Now, in a role that illustrates the interconnectivity of plant data, he’s been busy implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that’s helping departments throughout the plant achieve continuous improvement. 

“We never really had somebody to develop the marketing side of things, and then I got tied into that through the IT stuff, because it was like, ‘Oh, we have a website, and we’re going to go ahead and talk about what we can do with the website. Oh, we’re going to look at getting a new website,’ and that tied into going online,” said May, who as a college student worked as a computer lab assistant.  

“Well, you know, everything’s connected, right? It really is, because my ERP system is providing data from the system, but everybody's communicating back and forth using Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 is on the cloud ... also, so is the website. ... We’ve got to tie that in there, but where all our data is here on the local server, because everything’s local bound, well, now we’ve got to connect those two together,” he said. “And then there’s some people who are working outside of the plant that are remote, so they’ve got to VPN in, and they’ve got to be able to access the stuff that’s on the server, that’s on the ERP systems, that’s pulling from the records. ...”  

Across the economy, May’s skills — from tending to SAY Plastics’ data center to building dashboards to crunch numbers — are in line with some of the hottest jobs. While almost two dozen of the jobs expected to see the highest growth rates between 2023 and 2033 are related to health care — from veterinary jobs to medical equipment repair work — most of the rest in a list recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revolve around IT. 

The growth rates of some of these careers could influence who’s available to help you with your business in the years ahead: The need for data scientists, for example, is expected to grow 36 percent; information security analysts, 32.7 percent; computer and information research scientists, 25.6 percent; operations research analysts, 23 percent; software developers, 17.9 percent; and computer and information systems managers, 17.4 percent. According to the BLS, the median salaries for those jobs ranged from $83,640 to $169,510 in 2023. 

For manufacturers, one specific concern is cybersecurity, noted Danica Rome, VP of Kansas Manufacturing Solutions (KMS), which, as a member of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), provides consulting services to manufacturers in her state.   

Rome noted that among occupational sectors considered most vulnerable to a computer hack, health care and manufacturing typically run neck and neck for the top spot. That means there are jobs to be had for people who know how to provide protection. 

“We as the MEP center are diligently trying to educate these manufacturers that they are a prime target, and so the opportunity to grow their IT security is huge,” she said. 

Persistent challenges  

But the supply of skills isn’t meeting demand, observed Perc Pineda, the chief economist for the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS). 

“As manufacturing processes become more technical, the skills gap between labor supply and demand continues to widen,” he wrote in his analysis of the December jobs report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “... While the manufacturing workforce possesses some transferable skills, and labor mobility across manufacturing sectors can offer temporary relief, the demographic realities of the U.S. workforce make this approach unsustainable in the long term. For the U.S. manufacturing sector to thrive in domestic and global markets, it is crucial to address labor supply challenges strategically.” 

Processors’ responses to Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing's annual equipment-buying survey at the end of last year revealed concerns over labor availability continue to frustrate them. In 2024, the labor shortage had a negative effect on 49 percent of respondents; 14 percent reported a mixed negative-and-positive effect. Some processors told us they were concerned about skilled labor and the talent and knowledge of workers.  

Nearly 17 percent said they planned to spend more on equipment due to the labor shortage; almost 23 percent said that problem would inhibit their spending. One explained the reason behind some planned investments as a way to “reduce labor demands on current product lines to offset shortage of labor in our area.” 

However, general job opening trends suggest that the market has loosened considerably since the chaos of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic restart. 

Since a spike of 997,000 job openings in April 2022, the number of manufacturing openings has generally dropped, with November’s 412,000 openings marking the lowest level since the very early days of the pandemic. That compared with 468,000 the previous month and 553,000 the previous year. 

According to the most recent jobs report released in early January by BLS, the number of seasonally adjusted job openings in November was relatively steady compared with earlier months, at 8.1 million. 

Demographic ‘cliff’ is looming 

Jobs traditionally associated with manufacturing aren’t showing the meteoric rise in popularity of IT and health-care careers. But with the workforce graying, workforce experts warn competition for workers could be rugged in the years to come. 

"The financial crisis of 2008-2009 did a pretty good number on the demographics of the United States,” Richards said. “If you go look at the birth rate around there, it just plummeted off a cliff. So, if you go and extrapolate that out 18 years, which is college-age, you start to see that massive drop in population there is now entering college. So, the numbers are only going to get worse.” 

He continued, “You look at the shortfall of replacing just incumbent workers — it’s challenging now, but when the number of college-age students starts to plummet here in the next few years, it’s going to get very competitive and very challenging to source talent, unless a company has really got a strategy and a plan, and is willing to put some resources into figuring out how to do so.” 

According to labor market analytics firm Lightcast, the number of jobs in 2032 will exceed workers by 6 million. 

Only one position on the BLS list of fastest-growing jobs — industry machinery mechanic — bears a direct relationship to manufacturing. The BLS projects that position, which in 2023 commanded a median salary of $61,420, will grow 17.2 percent. 

Growth rates for other manufacturing jobs are in the single digits, if not crashing — even though the number might contribute to headaches for employers in the years to come.  

For example, demand for general and operations managers — who in 2023 commanded median salaries of $101,280 — is projected to grow 6 percent. But the raw number of positions is significant; a BLS video released in the second half of 2024 pegged the need for 210,400 new general and operations manager hires by 2033.  

Meanwhile, molding shows no change, while the number of job openings in packaging and filling machine operators and tenders will go up 6.7 percent. 

On the other hand, the need for tool and die makers is projected to fall 9.7 percent. Looking for a job as a drilling and boring machine tool setter, operator or tender? Good luck. Those opportunities are projected to plunge 22.2 percent. 

Mind the skills gap 

As manufacturing continues to pivot from traditional jobs to more-digital skills, workforce experts worry prospective employers aren’t getting the message. Failure to spread the word could be dire.  

“What we found is that there are so many that are obviously using robotics and AI and many advanced technologies that would easily align with tech-savvy candidates. The problem is the misconception of what manufacturing is,” Rome said. 

One-quarter of the plants Manufacturing Millennial Hall said he visits need massive overhauls in how they recruit and retain workers — otherwise, he predicts they will shutter by the end of the decade.  

“The companies that are doing well are willing to invest in change and are willing to say, ‘Hey, I'm going to change the status quo, the way I’ve done business for 20 years, and try something new,’ ” Hall said. 

In launching its smart manufacturing major, Purdue University was acknowledging that preparing students for the jobs people are currently doing is no longer enough, Richards said. Companies will have to make similar adjustments. 

“I am slowly seeing this realization: This isn’t just plastics. It’s all industries,” he said. “Waiting and just hoping that you’re going to be able to hire somebody using your usual methods and your usual approaches is not going to work, and in three to five years, you’re going to find that you’re just not able to acquire talent.” 

Assistance is available 

From partnerships with colleges and schools, to Manufacturing Day events and work with consultants and outside firms like Hall and Dice, many approaches are available to companies looking to close the skills gap.  

Upskilling is a popular approach, according to Manpower’s Stanton and KMS’ Rome.  

“Nearly all manufacturers are seeking solutions to help build their internal infrastructure of skills. When it comes to specialty manufacturing, like plastics, this quest is doubly important. With decades of experience in workforce solutions, Manpower encourages employers to prioritize building this infrastructure by having a clear path to reskilling,” said Stanton, who touted apprenticeships as one strategy. 

Rome also touted retraining. 

“It may be going through an already developed training class at your local community or technical college. It may be a customized training program for that specific individual,” Rome said.  

MEP offers free initial consulting to companies confronting an array of workforce issues, including problems associated with attracting and retaining labor. It also can help companies adjust to evolving technology, such as the addition of a cobot, Rome said. 

In some cases, subsidies are available for further help, she said, but the exact resources vary by state.  

For example, Hall, who’s based in Michigan, said Indiana offers $20,000 grants for Industry 4.0 technology investments. 

Rome said she has found continuous improvement and upskilling are popular topics in Kansas, where KMS offers training for emerging leaders.  

Whatever approach manufacturers take, Hall said it’s critical they get on board. 

‘”You can walk on a train, but when that train leaves that train station and it starts to go faster, and it starts to go faster and it starts to go faster, you can catch up to it for a bit, but there will be a point in time where that train is just going too fast and it’s too far away for you to get on the train, and then that’s when your company just closes its doors,” he said.

Open-door policy  

For youngsters who grew up navigating screens over maps, the best lure might be the jobs themselves.  

May was succinct in his assessment of his role at SAY Plastics.  

“I like a challenge,” he said.  

That appeal might work for others, too. Workforce advocates urge manufacturers to open their doors and show off their tech. Host school groups, or sponsor a robotics club — kids will be hooked if they can see what manufacturing demands today.  

“I think what’s really important is bringing these individuals as young as possible into those manufacturing plants, building those relationships with those schools, with those instructors, so that they really do understand the pipeline that's available for them, and that it is modern, and it is dynamic,” Rome said. 

As the founder of CHAMPION Now! — which stands for Change How American Manufacturing's Perceived In Our Nation — Iverson organizes camps for middle- and high schoolers that expose the students to actual manufacturing environments. He also offers kits to manufacturers interested in sponsoring their own events for young people. 

“They just don’t know about it. And then when they realize that the digital component that manufacturing now has, in terms of computerization and automation, when they realize that there’s quite a parallel with gaming, they end up finding out that it’s something that’s pretty intriguing and fascinating to them,” said Iverson, who’s based in Des Plaines, Ill.  

At one CHAMPION Now! camp, students assembled, sanded and stained pens and laser-engraved personalized name plates.

The technologies used by manufacturers are appealing to young people, said Chippewa Middle School teacher Alicia Koepke, who has taken her science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students to the camp. 

“The students were fascinated by the new measuring tools and watching the laser engraver work,” said Koepke, who is always seeking other STEM leaders to talk to her classes in Des Plaines. 

“Students only understand what they are exposed to. Many of my students are not given opportunities like this. By exposing them to different career pathways, they have more options for their future, whether they choose to go to college or not!” she wrote in an email.   

Like Iverson, the Manufacturing Institute is leaning into manufacturing’s similarities to gaming, with “The Quest for the Crystal of Innovation (Innovators Quest),” a gamified experience for preteens and teens. An email about the upcoming experience said, “Manufacturers need to fill 3.8 million jobs by 2033, with half at risk of remaining unfilled due to a skills gap. To address this, manufacturers must begin career exploration as early as 4th grade, as today’s 4th graders will graduate in 2033 and could be your future workforce.”   

Meanwhile, the Manufacturing Millennial touts reaching young people where they’re already at — social media. 

“Manufacturing Millennial really came about during the pandemic,” Hall said, “when I wanted to advocate and share what was happening in the manufacturing space, and I saw social media as a source that a lot of other industries leverage and use by sharing video, creating content. ... You can showcase applications. You can talk about how the industry is changing. You can advocate why technology matters. If so many companies are having a problem finding future workforce and getting this next generation excited, they need to do it through a means of technology that relates to how younger generations live their lives.” 

For young people who weren’t steeped in a family history of manufacturing, Iverson has seen outreach work.  

Technology speaks to them. 

“Out of every 100 young people that I talk to, probably less than 10 to 12 people have any inkling of what manufacturing is, or why they would even want to pursue it. By the time we’re done with 100 young people, there’s easily half that are like, ‘This is pretty cool,’ ” he said.