USA: The manufacturing industry is one sector in the US economy that is facing acute shortage of skilled workers, especially people skilled in metal cutting, welding and the likes.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, last year there were 264,000 openings in this industry as compared to the 100,000 openings in 2009 when the economic slowdown just began. One of the reasons why there is such difficulty in finding metal cutting and welding skilled workers is the complexity of the manufacturing industries which makes them unable to find up-to-date skilled workers.

Thus, manufacturing industry employers are applying unique tactics to attract people. For instance, the Mazak Corporation president is offering $2,500 bounty bonus to new incumbents. Clarifying this stand, Brain Papke, the President says, “We have to move quickly. Offering bounties were one of the fastest ways we could go to attract people into our welding programs.”

Similarly, there is the Michigan based Seco Tools whose 11 metal cutting and welding job openings pay up to $90,000 per years and now they have added an incentive of $4000 per person for continuing their education in metal products and its production processes.

At this moment, the US manufacturing industry needs people who know computers, have analytical abilities and knows mathematics but they are rarely successful in finding people with such knowledge base.