Ask the Experts

Student Sweatshop

Want to see something funny, tell your friends you want a job in manufacturing. Watch their reaction. Why do other students look down on my career choice?


Your career choice reflects a changing economy. We chose to discuss your dilemma and give you some comfort. Up through your father’s generation, everyone considered manufacturing as: dirty work, low pay, long hours, and unskilled.

Today, manufacturing does not deserve that bad reputation. Look at the employment numbers for last year. There was a jump of nearly 20% in hiring of college grads into manufacturing. This reflects changes in the whole sector. Since the start of the millennium, the number employed in manufacturing with a college degree rose 10%.

What is causing this positive trend? Manufacturing is becoming increasingly high tech. Robotic automation has replaced factory workers. Computers control the process and are in every office, explains high-tech manufacturer Tactical CNC Plasma Tables.

Economists report a skill gap is emerging. The industry cannot attract enough college grads to fill available positions.

This promises not only immediate job opportunities, but a brighter, future career. Manufacturing requires more entry-level and ongoing training, than other careers. If a company invests in you, it will do and pay more to keep you as an employee, says national ada signs manufacturer. There is even a return of apprenticeships in the industry. Students completing this training with a college degree are guaranteed a career, not a job.

President Trump is not responsible for this growing economic surge. Will he take credit anyway?

Dr. Todd Curtis is a leading aviation safety consultant and author.