Help wanted: Job openings in manufacturing second only to health care in 2011
The state’s manufacturing sector was hiring last year, with the number of job openings second only to health care, according a study released today by the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute.
Local manufacturers advertised nearly 73,000 jobs in 2011 — but relatively few were production jobs. The vast majority of openings came in areas such as sales and customer services, computer and information technology, and managerial positions. The health care sector, meanwhile, posted just over 76,000 openings.
Martin Romitti, director of economic and public policy research at the Donahue Institute, said the report provides a “better understanding of what employers are really asking for’’ but also reveals the difficulty that those employers have had placing qualified workers in the openings they have.
“They say it’s hard for them to find the right skilled workers,’’ Romitti said. “There’s a lot of mismatch going on and that mismatch may very well be that some people, in their careers, may not be thinking about how they can transfer their skills to be valuable to a manufacturer.’’
Part of the issue, according to the UMass report, is that nearly half of the jobs available in Massachusetts manufacturing, dominated by advanced manufacturing, require some college or post-secondary education.
Andre Mayer, a senior vice president at Associated Industries of Massachusetts Inc., a trade group, said the number job openings show that manufacturing is doing better, but an increase in advertised positions doesn’t necessarily mean increased hiring.
Employers are extra cautious after weathering the recent recession, which forced many manufacturers to make painful cuts to their workforce. With current uncertainties over how the debt crisis in Europe might affect the US economy, Mayer said, some are only hiring when they find the perfect person.
“In this market, employers are really very reluctant to hire people who aren’t absolutely job ready,’’ he said.
Unfortunately, he added, many of today’s job seekers “have the training but not the experience [or] they have the experience, but it’s not recent, not quite up-to-date.’’
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