To West Tool and Design owner Evan Westra, finding a machinist with a two-year degree and who is proficient at setting up and programming his tool-making machines is like finding gold.

Unfortunately, the Fergus Falls-based manufacturer doesn’t find gold often.

“It is always difficult to find trained and skilled people,” said Westra, president of machine and fixture manufacturer West Tool and Design. “We find ourselves bringing in people who know the basics and (training them).”

Westra is not alone in his desire for skilled workers. A recent survey of manufacturers across the United States found that as many as 600,000 jobs are vacant due to a shortage of skilled workers. The poll, conducted by Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute, declared that factories are experiencing a moderate to severe shortage of qualified workers.

That shortage is definitely felt in Fergus Falls, where a recovering economy has generated a demand for the city’s manufacturing businesses. As of fall of 2011, around 1,000 manufacturing workers were employed in the area. Finding more people has been difficult for some businesses.

It’s especially difficult for his company, Westra added, because most manufacturers just need one person to program their machines, while the rest of the employees can work at less-specialized (but still hard to hire for) positions.

“I have a shop full of that one person,” Westra said.

He believes one reason behind the shortage of manufacturing workers is false perceptions.

“My theory is, about 10 years ago, we were told, ‘All manufacturing is going to China. Don’t get into manufacturing; it’s dead,’” said Westra.

That didn’t turn out to be the case, and manufacturing is now seeing growth in the U.S. Unfortunately, said Westra, the doom and gloom scared off a lot of college kids.

“Now we have a demand that’s higher than anticipated,” he said.

Schools like Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis can’t graduate students from their manufacturing programs fast enough to meet employers’ hunger for talent. Last spring, several of the school’s manufacturing training programs placed 100 percent of their students with employers.

In his State of the Union speech this week, President Obama echoed that concern – a lament heard in factories across Minnesota.

“If you don’t have the skilled workforce that can make quality parts over and over again, you lose your customer,” Ness said.

Steve Hine, the state’s head labor market analyst, said if skilled manufacturing workers were scarce, companies would have more job openings and offer higher wages.

“It seems that offering higher wages would be a natural response,” Hine said.

SOURCE: fergusfallsjournal.com