Businesses and career-training facilities threw open their doors Friday to promote manufacturing employment in Arkansas in hopes of attracting a younger generation to fill thousands of available jobs.
From Fort Smith to West Memphis, manufacturers and training programs held open houses to help students, teachers, parents and community leaders learn more about jobs and careers in the manufacturing industry. Friday was declared National Manufacturing Day by the U.S. Manufacturing Institute.
"Manufacturing Day is something we strongly support because it changes the perception of what it's like to have a modern manufacturing job," said Clint O'Neal, executive vice president of global business at the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
"A lot of folks entering the workforce still see the manufacturing jobs of old -- where you work in a dark, dirty place that doesn't have a lot of technology integrated," O'Neal said. "That's not what manufacturing looks like today."
About 30 Manufacturing Day events are scheduled to continue in Arkansas through the end of October. Those events coincide with 3,000 similar celebrations across the country. The day of recognition was developed to encourage young workers to pursue careers in manufacturing.
Arkansas employers opened their plants to give a first-hand view of production facilities while educators welcomed the public to classrooms that provide the equipment for advanced skills training.
Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin was the keynote speaker at an event hosted by the Clarksville-Johnson County Chamber of Commerce. Industry leaders and educators, Griffin said, are learning to work together to train students with the skills needed to fill jobs immediately.
"This event recognizes the opportunities we have when the private sector joins hands with community colleges or high schools to advance workforce development," Griffin said.
Churning out graduates without specific skills to enter the job market no longer works, according to Griffin. Business leaders and educators must work in tandem to give students the skills they need to succeed in the workplace, he said.
"Educators can't know what specifically a private-sector company needs to succeed," Griffin said. "Companies are realizing they can't compete if they can't fix this problem. And they certainly can't grow if they don't fill their job needs, and some of them may not even be able to exist."
Arkansas has at least 11,500 jobs open in the manufacturing sector, according to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.
"There are highly skilled and well-paying jobs that are available at nearly every manufacturer in the state," said Steve Sparks, director of the existing business resource division at the commission.
Experts say manufacturing jobs are challenging to fill because many next-generation workers see production work as old-fashioned and labor-intensive. After a plant tour, students leave with greater awareness of how technology is used, according to officials who participated in Friday's events.
"That's one of the myths we're trying to bust with Manufacturing Day," said Hannah Niblett, recruiting manager for Pace Industries in Harrison.
"We want to take students through our facility to show them manufacturing is not what your grandparents remember and what they tell you," she added. "We need students and their tech-savvy skills because robots are running every one of our machines. We have a very high-tech operation, and we need that skill set."
Pace has been hosting Manufacturing Day events for about five years, and this year more than 500 students will tour the Harrison facility. The event is so popular, Niblett said, that Pace will hold another tour next week.
"Every year, we have been successful in hiring students who come through for the tour," she said.
Students get introduced to safety procedures, die-cast machinery and the tool room, and they learn about the integrated use of computer technology and robotics in the manufacturing process. Pace, with 300 employees in Harrison, produces metal parts for multiple industries.
Plant tours, like the one Pace conducts, build a greater understanding of manufacturing work, according to Randy Zook, president and chief executive officer of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.
"Tours give folks the chance to witness first-hand what manufacturing plants are versus what they probably think they are," he said, noting that factories today have automated equipment and computer-controlled machines, and that they make heavy use of data analysis to monitor the production process.
"All of that adds up to an environment that's a lot more appealing and where young people can see themselves working," he added.
Arkansas has 162,500 workers, or about 12.5 percent of the state's workforce, employed in manufacturing. That's the fourth-largest sector in the state. The average annual manufacturing wage in the state is $48,006, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Arkansas manufacturing is the leading contributor to the state gross domestic product at 15 percent, the statistics show.
On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department reported that manufacturing jobs declined nationwide. The nation has about 12.75 million manufacturing jobs, or 8.5 percent of the workforce.
Business on 10/05/2019