Women make up 47% of the US workforce, but only 24% work in manufacturing. This amounts to a largely untapped resource for new talent. However misconceptions of both employers and young women may be keeping the number of females in the industry so low.
Finding qualified CNC machine operators and other manufacturing personnel today can be challenging and raises questions about future workforce availability. One solution, of course, is to work with local schools to encourage students to consider a career in manufacturing and point them toward appropriate educational opportunities.
One of the ongoing concerns of CNC machine shops is the difficulty in finding qualified machine operators, programmers and other skilled workers. Some of the proposed cures for this malady are better education about manufacturing in our public schools, better access to technical education at community colleges, and a return to apprenticeship programs. There is even talk of creating an industry-wide advertising and public relations campaign to enhance the image of manufacturing as a career option.