Report: Worker Shortage not so Bad

But more severe shortages could develop, threatening to constrain that revival, unless aggressive steps are taken now, according to new research by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

BCG estimates that the U.S. is short some 80,000 to 100,000 highly skilled manufacturing workers. That shortage represents less than 1% of the nation's 11.5 million manufacturing workers and less than 8% of its 1.4 million highly skilled manufacturing workers. What's more, only seven states - six of which are in the bottom quartile of U.S. state manufacturing output—show significant or severe skills gaps. The shortages are local, not nationwide, in nature and reflect imbalances driven by both location and job classes.

To identify where skills gaps exist in the U.S., BCG - using wage data and manufacturing-job vacancy rates—looked at localities where wage growth has exceeded inflation by at least 3 percentage points annually for five years. Wage growth is a widely accepted indicator of skills shortages in other sectors, such as energy; it reveals where employers have been forced to bid up pay to attract hard-to-find workers. By BCG's definition, only five of the nation's 50 largest manufacturing centers (Baton Rouge, Charlotte, Miami, San Antonio, and Wichita) appear to have significant or severe skills gaps. Occupations in shortest supply are welders, machinists, and industrial-machinery mechanics.

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