现代工厂需要大量的工人
格雷格Scheu | IndustryWeekU.S. 制造业是一个成长型行业; and so robust that one of the biggest challenges for employers is finding enough people to fill these good 工作.
现代工厂需要大量的工人
机器人制造商ABB在美国拥有2.4万名员工.S.职位空缺比准备填补的人要多.
作为美国.S. 美国经济继续从大衰退中复苏, 一个亮点是一个行业, 去听那些愤世嫉俗的人, 你可能会认为他已经收拾行装逃离了这个国家. 我说的是制造业.
事实是，美国.S. 制造业是一个成长型行业. 自2009年经济衰退结束以来, 这个国家的制造业就业人数增加了近1%.300万工人，总数超过12人.700万个工作岗位. And a quarter-million of those 制造业 工作 were added in the last 12 months alone, 根据最新的政府就业报告.
这就是为什么本周, 庆祝全国制造业日, 14个国家中的许多,000 member companies of the National Association of Manufacturers are holding public events all over the country and even opening their factory doors to visitors, 来帮助传播新闻:制造业, 由复杂的数字技术驱动, has made a comeback in the United States and is providing some of the country’s best, 和高酬, 工作.
事实上，U.S. 制造业——从制造精密零件到制造电动机, 到制造汽车, airliners and industrial robots – is so robust that one of the biggest challenges for employers is finding enough people to fill these good 工作. The latest government figures indicate there may be as many as a half-million unfilled 制造业 job openings in the United States right now.
以南卡罗来纳州格林维尔为例.C., where my company, ABB, and a number of other global 制造业 giants have modern factories. 其中包括通用电气(General Electric)、宝马(BMW)、米其林(密歇根州elin)和博世力士乐(Bosch Rexroth). 在格林维尔, 所有这些公司和其他公司都在从事一个连续的业务, 招聘竞争激烈, 培训和留住我们需要的员工, 高度电脑化的工厂.
对于像ABB这样的公司来说，这是全国各地都面临的挑战, 这家总部位于瑞士的公司雇佣了24名员工,000 people at more than five dozen 制造业 or research-and-development sites around the United States. 在几乎所有的美国.S. 地点，我们的职位空缺比有能力填补的人要多.
Why do so many of those 工作 go unfilled – despite the fact that 制造业 pays more in hourly earnings on average than in any other industry in America?
We think part of the problem is a public misconception of what modern 制造业 involves. 所以, part of Manufacturing Day’s mission is to help middle-school and high-school students – and their teachers and parents and even grandparents – understand how profoundly things have changed in U.S. 一两代人以前的工厂. 制造业工作的旧形象——肮脏、黑暗和危险——不再成立.
Today’s factories are clean, well-lit, air-conditioned and highly computerized workplaces. And because the sophisticated 制造业 that is done in these plants is not the sort of work that can be done by cheap, 非熟练劳动, it is not susceptible to the “offshoring” that devastated so many American 制造业 communities a generation ago.
That’s what our industry wants people to see firsthand with this week’s open-house events. 但提高公众意识只是教育挑战的开始.
More crucial is supporting the education and skills-training opportunities that can enable more people to enter the 制造业 professions as a firm pathway to the American middle class. And it means creating a work culture in which life-long learning and retraining are not only expected but encouraged – and enabled by supportive employers.
最近一项针对25个工业化国家的研究表明， “自动化准备指数”， found that too few countries are adequately preparing the workers of tomorrow for careers in an economy where robotics-driven automation and artificial intelligence will augment human work. 报告的好消息是, 与耸人听闻的头条新闻相反, 机器人不会抢走我们的工作. What the robots and other forms of automation are doing is changing the nature of human work.Today’s automation means that the highly repetitive or physically arduous tasks that a generation ago went to cheap labor outside the United States can now be done by machines. 现在需要的是人类的创造力, 只有具有批判性思维和决策能力的人才有教养, 受过训练的人——拥有.
我们仍然需要人, 很多人, 设计, 程序, 操作和维护现代制造业的机器. We also need people who are capable of building the machines – as 600 ABB employees are doing at our robotics plant near Detroit in Auburn Hills, 密歇根州.
The Automation Readiness Index study from the Economist Intelligence Unit and ABB earlier this year found that the countries doing the most to prepare their workforces – South Korea, Germany and Singapore – are combining government 程序s and corporate initiatives to update school curriculums, provide occupational training and support a system of continuous learning throughout workers’ careers. 通过这些措施，美国在准备指数中仅排名第9位.
But American manufacturers aren’t sitting around waiting for federal 程序s to solve the problem. Many of us are working with educators in our local communities to give people the skills they need for modern 制造业 and to encourage them to continue learning and advancing.在格林维尔, 例如, our company and others have developed joint 程序s with the local community college, 格林维尔科技, 提供培训和认证. One of the most successful of these is a 150-hour course that qualifies Level 1 machinists to operate the CNC – Computerized Numeric Control – machines that do much of the precision work in today’s factories. ABB is eager to hire the best graduates from this 程序, and so are all our local competitors. And we also pay the tuition for our employees who want to pursue their two- and four-year degrees or beyond.
U.S. manufacturers are engaged in similar efforts in their communities all across the country, knowing that the workers of today and tomorrow are looking for 工作 that involve leading-edge technologies, 持续的在职晋升和有意义的职业生涯.
在一起, 作为公司和社区, we can embrace the new economic opportunities that modern 制造业 offer the people of the United States. That’s a message we’re eager to spread and proud to share – not only on Manufacturing Day, 但是每一天.
