HELP WANTED | Valley manufacturers said the talent pipeline has been slowing to a trickle
[Editor’s note: This is the eighth report in our multipart series “Help Wanted,” in which Mahoning Matters reviews labor shortages in Mahoning County’s top employment sectors, focusing on jobs that are difficult to fill, have high turnover or are otherwise in high demand. Nationwide, 4.3 million people quit their jobs in December 2021 alone, according to federal data. This report focuses on manufacturing jobs. Past articles have focused on health and veterinary care, education, social work and food service. Have something to say about local employment rates or in-demand jobs? Email us at news@mahoningmatters.com, send us a confidential tip here or call us toll-free at 888-655-1012.]
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Ohio’s manufacturing sector saw about 175,000 quits in February, the sixth-highest rate nationwide that month, behind California, Florida, Georgia, New York and Texas, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
More than 43 million Americans quit their jobs last year, and The Great Resignation hit that sector the hardest, wrote a Washington Post columnist earlier this year. According to a Pew Research Center survey, most workers who quit their jobs said they left because of low wages, lack of advancement opportunities and disrespect in the workplace.
But for some in the Mahoning Valley’s manufacturing sector — the third-largest employer in Mahoning County, behind health care and retail — hiring is as big a problem as retention.
“I wouldn’t say more people are quitting by any stretch. I’d say we’re having more difficulty finding more qualified candidates. … Those quality candidates don’t seem to be applying,” Ryan Englehardt, plant manager for the Youngstown-based Brilex Industries, told Mahoning Matters in March.
At the time, he was having the most difficulty hiring for the 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. afternoon shifts at the business’ two plants, which had seen the highest turnover.
The fabrication, CNC machining and assembly shop turns raw steel into specific products for various means like wood processing, electrical distribution, or rubber, glass or steel production. Some of its parts are used in Disney theme park rides, Englehardt said.
The Brilex group of companies employs about 250 people, about 100 of whom are on the Youngstown shop floor. Brilex funnels entry-level workers in general labor jobs — which don’t require much training or experience, but are better suited to “hands-on” workers, like builders or even landscapers — into more highly skilled specialized fields.
“Could you hire somebody from a Dairy Queen and make them successful in that environment? Yes, but I’d like to see some level of manufacturing background,” he said.
High schoolers recruited to Brilex straight from high school can make $15 per hour to a little more than $20 per hour, Englehardt said. The company also offers tuition reimbursement and profit-sharing, he said.
‘The newest thing’
For other manufacturers, the talent pipeline for those with specialized skill sets is narrow.
Ultium Cells Human Resources Manager Chris Allen said in April the company’s most needed jobs are maintenance workers like electricians and HVAC technicians, as well as those familiar with programmable logic controls that allow the plant’s robots to talk to one another. Since the plant is mostly automated — and about a third of it is a cleanroom environment — the company relies more on folks who can manage that machinery.
The lowest starting wage at Ultium’s Lordstown facility is $15 per hour; the average is $16.50, Allen said. The company also offers day-one benefits and tuition reimbursement up to $8,000 each year, Waid said.
Ultium as of mid-April employed about 350 workers at its Lordstown facility next to the newly anointed Foxconn auto manufacturing plant, most of whom live within a 50-mile radius, said spokesperson Brooke Waid. The company has begun hiring more aggressively as it nears its August 2022 goal to begin production of the battery packs powering General Motors’ line of electric vehicles. It expects to have 700 workers by year’s end, and about 1,300 by the end of next year, she said.
The company last year announced new plants in Tennessee and Michigan. A fourth location is still to be announced, she said.
Since December, it’s been actively recruiting and hiring hourly workers like production assistants, operators, material handlers and maintenance workers, said Allen, mostly through community events at places like Campbell’s new Community Literary Workforce and Cultural Center, the Eastwood Mall in Niles, area high schools or even Warren-area churches.
More sessions are expected this summer, he said.
“We’re still resting on the fact that this is the newest thing. There’s a lot of interest and a lot of appetite for learning and understanding what we do,” Allen said. “[We’re] a company that’s building out a new brand and making a new product.”
When they took shop out of high school
But interest in the manufacturing sector overall has waned, Englehardt and Allen said.
Englehardt, who also serves as vice president of the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition, said there’s a generational gap in the manufacturing workforce — not enough younger workers to backfill for retirees. Not many are exposed to those types of jobs in high school, he said.
Enrollment in trade schools is “not even close” to meeting the workforce demand, Allen said. It’s been a yearslong struggle that he thinks started in the 1980s, when more high schools stopped offering shop class and “we got pushed away from those skill sets,” he said.
Across the board, there are too few technical maintenance laborers — electricians, controls engineers or multicraft technicians — to go around, he said.
“Somehow, we have to do a better job of promoting and showing success in those types of professions,” Allen said.
“The message that’s missing to young people is there are two ways to start a career” — white-collar or trade work, he said. “The individual coming out of trade school and getting a job is probably at the same level or higher than the person that got a four-year degree, when they come out and go into the job market.
“If we’re looking at success, they’re about equal.”
‘We can teach you’
Ultium’s process isn’t like traditional internal combustion vehicle manufacturing. The company recognizes it must train on-site, and doesn’t focus too much on applicants’ technical skills, Allen said.
“We can teach you how to do it. What we need you to do is to demonstrate you can learn, you can apply the learning and you can teach others,” Allen said. “If they can demonstrate they can do those three things, we can offer them an opportunity.”
A good primer is Youngstown State University’s Skills Accelerator program, which offers about 40 hours of online training that’s a primer on manufacturing work — things like OSHA safety requirements, Allen said. Ultium actually paid Eastern Gateway Community College to establish coursework teaching the Mitsubishi coding language that instructs Ultium’s robots, Allen said.
For traditional manufacturing environments like Brilex’s, some tech certifications take only six months to complete, and the payoff is often bigger than it would be for a four-year degree.
“Manufacturing traditionally has higher pay than the service industries. … If you look within the Mahoning Valley, a lot of the six-figure earners are in manufacturing,” Englehardt said. “They don’t have to have a degree — they just want to work, whether that be in labor, whether that be in machining.”
Englehardt recommends shadowing a worker for a day to “make sure it’s something they’re going to enjoy.”
