Fortune reports almost eighty percent “of the current manufacturing workforce is between the ages of 45 and 65,” according to a new report from ThomasNet.com. One-third of the current manufacturing workforce is between 55 and 64 years old and nearing retirement. Yet, the report notes, “more than three-quarters of the manufacturers in the study said that fewer than 25% of their employees are under age 30, and most don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
“Manufacturing has an image problem,” says Paul Gerbino, head of industrial-supply trade publishers ThomasNet News. “People think of it as dirty, dark, and low-paying.” That stereotype is one reason why companies that make tangible products are struggling to find candidates for about 237,000 job openings. To put that figure in perspective, it’s 89,000 more than the entire U.S. economy created in September