Manufacturers Get Creative With Workforce Development

“Earn-and-learn” opportunities — such as apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, internships and work-study programs — help workers gain in-demand skills and work experience while also earning a paycheck, according to a May 28 report from the Government Accountability Office.

Participants benefit through higher pay, low or no student debt and occupation-relevant education that leads to a credential, while employers benefit through higher employee retention and the ability to fill workforce gaps, GAO found.

“Many workers look to develop skills while maintaining self-sufficiency and meaningful employment,” according to the GAO report. “Some workers accomplish this through earn-and-learn opportunities, which provide practical experience that can help them gain needed skills to progress in their career.”

In particular, Registered Apprenticeship Programs combine a mix of on-the-job-training, mentorship and classroom-based instruction as part of employment. Several federal agencies administer programs to support RAPs, especially in high-demand industries such as construction, healthcare and skilled trades.

GAO found at least 26 programs across five federal agencies (U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, Education, Labor and Veterans Affairs) that could employ earn-and-learn opportunities. 

During fiscal year 2024, 940,000 workers participated in RAPs across industries such as construction, healthcare, technology, energy and advanced manufacturing. Participants were generally in high-growth and high-wage occupations, with six of the 10 most common RAP occupations projected to grow faster than the average occupation by 2033.

At the same time, employers said barriers such as awareness gaps among employers and job seekers, administrative burdens and costs could prevent program expansion.

“Federal agencies have implemented several recent initiatives to address these challenges,” the GAO report concluded. “For instance, DOL contracts with industry intermediaries to serve as RAP sponsors, which can reduce the administrative burden on individual employers.”

The Trump administration has sent mixed signals on apprenticeships, issuing an executive order to surpass 1 million new active apprenticeships but not yet setting aside additional funding to support the effort. So far, the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget doesn’t provide new investments in apprenticeships and cuts total workforce development spending.

At the state level, commitment to apprenticeship programs remains strong. Pennsylvania has announced nearly $8 million in grants to expand its teacher apprenticeship program to address ongoing shortages.

Apprenticeships gained traction in 2024 as more employers sought to fill talent gaps and reach new communities. The programs tend to open paths to skilled trades, provide needed skills development and extend talent pipelines to workers with criminal records and those looking for temporary or contract work.

Registered apprenticeships can help workers access living wages, particularly in joint labor-management programs run cooperatively by unions and employers, according to research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Joint programs also had higher completion rates.

As millions of near-retirement age business owners plan their company’s future, experts say employee ownership plans could help retain and attract more workers for U.S. manufacturing.

Common types of employee ownership schemes include employee stock ownership plans, employee ownership trusts and worker cooperatives. 

The U.S. has more than 6,500 employee stock ownership plans, holding total assets of more than $1.8 trillion, according to the National Center for Employee Ownership. Manufacturing companies account for the largest segment of those with ESOPs.

Proponents say these systems can help employees build wealth and provide business owners with a community-focused alternative to a third-party sale. They also note that ESOPs can give businesses an edge over competitors in challenging times.

According to NCEO, ESOP food companies had a 6% median quit rate in 2020 versus a 20% rate for non-ESOP companies. ESOP respondents were also more likely to say that their company fared better than competitors during the pandemic. 

Project Equity, a nonprofit that supports employee ownership, found ESOPs were 1.5 times more likely to avoid closure for any reason compared with comparable non-employee-owned companies over a 10-year period.

Nancy Wiefek, research director at NCEO, said that ESOPs can be an especially good fit for cases where owners feel a strong sense of connection with employees, want to maintain a local sense of community for the company and care about their legacy. “They can make sure that the company stays as they want it,” Wiefek said.

As with any company sale, ESOPs can be complex. Wiefek emphasized that in order for it to work, a business needs to be successful. “It really doesn't work well to rescue a business that’s struggling,” she said.

ESOPs are one way to prepare for the so-called “silver tsunami” that is on the way. According to Project Equity, 2.9 million businesses in the U.S. have owners that are aged 55 or older. As these executives get ready for their retirement, many might struggle to find timely buyers for their businesses.

One business owner that converted to an ESOP as part of a plan to prepare for retirement is Eddie Leventhal. As he was getting older, he wanted an exit strategy from his companies: Valco Industries, of which he was the 100% owner, and A&E Powder Coating, which was a partnership with his son. 

Valco is a metal fabricator and A&E provides industrial powder coating services. Leventhal estimated the companies currently have around 95 employees.

Leventhal decided to convert to an ESOP after a series of meetings with specialists who had experience working with family businesses. It provided an avenue for him to continue working in his role as president, and guarantee that the business would remain based in Springfield, Ohio.

Springfield once had a lot of family- and locally-owned manufacturing companies, but now Leventhal said “a lot of that is gone.” When local businesses are sold to out-of-state entities Leventhal said he feels it can affect workers and their sense of community. “It’s certainly a different relationship with the new owners, and I think ultimately that changes the complexity,” he added.

Leventhal wanted to ensure that he could keep his current staff employed “and find a path or a way to reward those who worked here and were committed to our success,” he said. “The ESOP checked pretty much all the boxes that were important to me.” 

“I certainly think it was a good decision,” Leventhal said. “If I had to do it over again, I probably would have spent a great deal more time doing some due diligence.”

He completed the ESOP deal in March 2021. The whole process took about a year and turned out to be more costly and complex than initially anticipated.

He had to hire an attorney and find an independent trustee to represent employees. An external firm conducted a deep dive into the valuation of the company. A negotiation between an independent trustee and a professional advisor was needed to come up with a price for the transaction. The company also began working with a new bank for the transaction, as the one Leventhal had used for years had no experience with ESOPs. 

Torani, a flavored syrups company with over 400 employees in the San Francisco Bay area, is another notable ESOP example. The company also needed many advisors on legal, financial, and tax matters to implement their ESOP scheme. CEO Melanie Dulbecco said this process shouldn’t be underestimated and “took a lot to put it together.”

Another challenge that Leventhal has faced is getting younger team members to care deeply about retirement planning.

“A lot of 25-year-olds aren’t much interested in what life looks like at 65,” he said.

Now, he’s pushing forward to assist in financial literacy for staff. This includes having a representative from a bank put on a class that employees could sign up for, as well as bringing in a financial planner to meet with staff.

Wiefek echoed Leventhal’s experience on employees’ financial skills being a core challenge for getting strong support for ESOPs.

“For a lot of workers, it sounds almost too good to be true,” she said, adding that for companies who can navigate these challenges, “it can really be a competitive advantage.”

Torani’s Dulbecco said her company has also navigated this perception, because “usually, stock is something that’s accessible to people in the executive team or highly compensated folks.”

She wanted to create a structure to make it something that all team members could enjoy. Dulbecco said the response from staff has been positive. New recruits that recently joined Torani’s warehouse and distribution team were excited when they learned they were automatically enrolled in the ESOP. 

But Dulbecco emphasized that an ESOP is just one piece of a holistic people-first approach for the business, adding that younger staff especially value career mobility and growth opportunities.

“I think we need a whole refresh in the way we think about, not just manufacturing, but front-line team members,” she said. 

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Manufacturing is transforming at breakneck speed. Robotics, IoT, and agentic AI are reshaping factories into intelligent ecosystems capable of running entire workflows autonomously. Yet, amid all this innovation, one reality looms large:

Without skilled workers, smart factories cannot deliver on their promise.

The 2025 Workforce Skills Forecast* reveals a nuanced picture of the future workforce. In the U.S., manufacturing employment is projected to decline by nearly 200,000 jobs by 2030, as efficiency gains from agentic AI and other technologies outpace the number of new jobs created. At the same time, other countries are forecast to see growth in the manufacturing workforce, driven by economic expansion and technology adoption. In these markets, the challenge is closing workforce shortages.

Whether in regions where manufacturing employment grows or declines, one constant remains: by 2030, over 2.2 million roles*, will be reshaped by agentic AI, requiring large-scale reskilling to ensure workers can adapt alongside machines.

The Workforce Challenge

Manufacturing’s workforce problem isn’t abstract—it’s operational.

• Turnover: Manufacturing turnover rates hover around 30–31%, far higher than the national average.  This churn means constant retraining, rising recruiting costs, and lost institutional knowledge.

• Safety: In 2023, there were 391 fatal injuries in U.S. manufacturing, with a fatality rate of 2.5 deaths per 100,000 workers. Non-fatal incidents topped 350,000, many from machine contact, falls, or exposure to harmful substances.
• Reskilling urgency: By 2030, more than 2.275 million manufacturing roles across nine countries will be impacted by agentic AI. In growth regions, this means reskilling workers to close workforce shortages.  In regions of decline, it means equipping workers in impacted—but not eliminated—roles with new skills to remain productive alongside technology.

Three Imperatives for Manufacturers

The 2025 Workforce Skills Forecast outlines three critical imperatives for manufacturers:

1. Deploy AI Agents to Augment, Not Replace

AI should take on repetitive workflows so workers can focus on higher-value tasks.

• On the line: Operators oversee multiple machines while AI monitors performance, flags anomalies, and suggests adjustments.
• In logistics: Planners use AI to run disruption simulations, freeing time for supplier negotiations and strategic planning.
• In quality control: AI vision systems scan thousands of units for defects; inspectors step in only when exceptions arise.

The human role evolves into oversight, decision-making, and optimization—areas where judgment still matters most.

2. Upskill the Frontline—Fast

As automation reshapes roles, manufacturers must upskill and reskill. This is particularly urgent in growth markets, where shortages can slow production, and in declining markets, where workers in impacted roles must be retrained to remain productive.

• Maintenance technicians can retrain to interpret predictive analytics dashboards, preventing breakdowns instead of reacting to them.
• Assemblers can use AR headsets for step-by-step retraining, seamlessly adapting when AI reroutes production.
• Safety coordinators can use mobile AI apps to audit PPE compliance in real time, resolving issues before they escalate.

Upskilling in the flow of work builds adaptability while giving employees confidence their jobs—and futures—are secure.

3. Make AI Governance Everyone’s Job

AI governance cannot remain the domain of IT. Every worker must be equipped to use AI.

• Supervisors validate AI recommendations against safety standards before approving changes.

• Procurement teams ensure AI-driven vendor scorecards reflect ethical sourcing.
• Executives align AI adoption with compliance and sustainability goals.

By embedding governance into every role, manufacturers can build trust, reduce risk, and meet the sector’s strict safety and compliance requirements.

Why Workforce Development Can’t Wait

For manufacturers, the stakes are high:

• Turnover widens knowledge gaps just as roles are growing more complex.
• Safety risks demand skilled oversight to ensure AI insights are acted on responsibly.
• AI-driven role changes will disrupt over 2 million jobs globally* in the next decade, magnifying divides between companies that reskill and those that don’t.

Workforce development is no longer an HR initiative—it’s a business imperative tied directly to safety, productivity, and competitiveness.

• Identify roles at risk and in transition: Map jobs most likely to be reshaped by AI (maintenance, QC, logistics, safety).
• Align HR, IT, and Operations: Form a cross-functional task force to coordinate workforce strategy.
• Pilot reskilling in the flow of work: Start with one process (e.g., safety checks, machine changeovers). Use mobile or AR training to measure impact.
• Track the metrics that matter: Retention, productivity, and safety outcomes—not just course completions.
• Scale what works, retire what doesn’t: Expand successful pilots across plants; sunset manual or siloed processes.
• Embed governance everywhere: Train leaders and frontline supervisors to validate AI use and ensure compliance.

The Blueprint for Smart Manufacturing

1. Map AI to Human Growth – Identify roles where AI augments work, then retrain people for the higher-value tasks that remain.

2. Deliver Training in the Flow of Work – Use mobile apps, AR, and AI prompts to guide learning on the job.

3. Track Metrics that Matter – Monitor retention, safety incidents, and training completion to close workforce gaps.

4. Embed Governance Everywhere – Train every role to handle AI safely, ethically, and compliantly.

Final Word: People Build the Future

Automation and AI will power the factory of the future. But it’s people who will make—or break—its success. With more than 2.2 million manufacturing roles set to be reshaped by AI by 2030, the time to invest in reskilling is now.

ServiceNow helps manufacturers turn workforce development from a challenge into a competitive advantage. By unifying workflows across HR, IT, and operations, ServiceNow helps manufacturers:

• Deliver self-service directly to frontline workers.
• Automate training and re-certification processes.
• Embed governance and compliance into daily workflows.
• Enable employees to adapt as roles evolve.

And in manufacturing, that’s the ultimate competitive edge. Machines may assemble, but people build the future.

*2025 Workforce Skill Forecast, 9 countries

Through strong industry partnerships and career and technical education, rural schools can equip their students for growing workforce needs in advanced manufacturing.

Advanced manufacturing in the U.S. is undergoing a period of rapid expansion, with an anticipated $1 trillion investment in projects, 63% of which is expected to be allocated to facilities near rural communities, according to an analysis from the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility.

The McKinsey Institute also surveyed nearly 1,500 rural high school students and recent graduates, finding that 8 in 10 would like career-connected learning and apprenticeship opportunities. However, only 5 in 10 reported having access to career-connected learning in high school, and only 3 in 10 had access to apprenticeships.

The report highlights that as advanced manufacturers expand into rural America, they play a crucial role in fostering strong relationships with local school systems.

Advanced manufacturing industry experts and companies are seeking workers with foundational, technical and durable skills, the report found. However, there seems to be a short supply of these skill sets across the manufacturing labor pool.

One cause of this shortage, the report argues, is a lack of strong, established collaborations between the industry and K-12 schools. The industry's need for well-equipped future workers could also meet the needs of K-12 schools to expand students' career opportunities.

Research has found that taking CTE courses can lead to higher graduation rates and greater employment opportunities, which is why industry and rural schools can work together to provide K-12 students with the necessary education and technical skills to enter the incoming workforce, the report noted.

To ensure that students are learning these high-demand skills, employers and industry associations should provide apprenticeships and other workplace learning opportunities for rural schools, as well as help create industry-relevant curricula, the report explained. A strong collaboration benefits not just schools and students, but companies that are also securing a pipeline of prepared workers.

The report recommends that school systems work with local governments and organizations to build connections with employers. Through strong partnerships with industry professionals, schools can develop more effective, career-connected and evidence-based models, the report said.

CTE courses provide students with hands-on, real-world skills for a defined set of careers, and an effective course focuses on skills in demand in the local market. As manufacturing investments grow in rural communities, the report said, schools could offer CTE courses that prepare students with technical and other STEM-based skills necessary in the advanced manufacturing field.

The report also emphasized that industry partners should have regular interaction with students and touch base with them at regularly scheduled intervals. This ensures students are consistently aware of the different career pathways available to them. These interactions can evolve as students advance through different grades, shifting from informational to more tangible resources like apprenticeships, summer jobs and postsecondary scholarships later in high school.

Beyond industry partnerships, state legislatures can also offer incentives for CTE programming through policies and funding, the report recommends. States are already providing these types of incentives, with 40 states collectively approving more than 150 policies focused on boosting CTE programming in 2024.

JBM Packaging is bringing a program to an Ohio prison that teaches technical job skills to individuals who are incarcerated to aid in their successful reentry upon release. The company installed envelope manufacturing equipment at Ohio’s London Correctional Institution, where participants use it for training as machine adjusters for an average of 32 hours per week for six to 12 months prior to their release.

Trainees are paid and upon release are hired at JBM, said President and CEO Marcus Sheanshang. The goal is to hire up to three of these individuals per year. Real-world production on the equipment at LoCI is slated to begin in the next few weeks, with expected output of up to 10,000 envelopes per hour.

While the program previously ran at another prison in the state, under the terms of the new agreement with LoCI, JBM is able to pay participants higher wages, Sheanshang said. “This is something where we want to do it for a long period of time. For that really to be consistent with who we are as a business, we want to make sure that we're paying people fairly," he said.

The in-prison technical skills-building initiative is part of JBM Packaging’s broader “Fair Chance” program, through which it provides employment and ongoing supportive resources to formerly incarcerated individuals. The company launched its fair chance initiative about eight years ago, and more than 125 people have been employed through it during that time.

JBM began transitioning its prison workforce program to London about a year ago, and it’s now fully operational, Sheanshang said. The company is spotlighting the initiative’s evolution during Second Chance month, which has been recognized nationally in April since 2017.

Second chance hiring has been key to JBM’s growth, especially in a challenging labor market. “Hiring folks that are coming out of prison really is a great answer to many of our issues that we would have with growth,” Sheanshang said.

Businesses increasingly are turning to second chance hiring to fill labor gaps, according to speakers at the 2025 Second Chance Forum on April 1. Recruiting from this largely untapped talent pool is mutually beneficial to help businesses meet their needs while providing steady employment and income to formerly incarcerated individuals, speakers said, noting that numerous studies have shown these programs reduce recidivism, or individuals released from prison being recommitted within a short time.

“For us, second chance hiring is not just the right thing to do, it’s also good business,” Peter Quigley, president and CEO at staffing agency Kelly Services, said during the event. “The second chance employees are loyal, they’re hardworking, the amount of turnover is significantly lower. ... If you’re in business and want to attract people to your brand, fair chance hiring — our research shows — is good business.”

In Virginia, the prison system offers training for 40 different trades and has 170 different programs within those trades, said Chadwick Dotson, director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, during the event. It works with businesses for worker placement as well as collaboratively developing training programs that meet companies’ evolving needs. 

“We work with the business community ... to determine what does the workforce need, who’s hiring, so we can create programs around that. We’re constantly evaluating and re-evaluating our programs,” Dotson said.

Partnering with Ohio Penal Industries to create JBM Packaging’s training program already has proven beneficial in the short time it’s been running at the London Correctional Institution, Sheanshang said. JBM recently hired its first employee who completed the program, and two other trainees are going through the program right now. When they’re hired, these employees transition into JBM’s in-house “Better Lives” program for previously incarcerated individuals.

“The prison system here in Ohio has been great to work with,” Sheanshang said. “They have painted the entire area where they work in the JBM colors, they've got our core values up there, they've got our purpose up there. They've really taken a lot of pride in JBM.”

Starting skills-building while an individual is still in prison gives them a leg up for landing employment upon reentry and provides businesses access to qualified labor, sources say. For instance, the adjuster role that JBM trains for at LoCI “is something that takes three to five years to really understand the craft,” Sheanshang said. “With them being able to work on this equipment for three to six months, they're that much further ahead.”

Participants will further boost their skills once production runs start, Sheanshang said. For example, the adjuster will be able to make real-time changes to operations to ensure the line runs at the right speed and the envelopes produced are of expected quality.

JBM Packaging has two folding machines at LoCI. After evaluating the success of production runs, the company likely will look to add another piece of equipment, Sheanshang said, noting the desire to expand to other prisons as well.

U.S. manufacturing is in a rebuilding phase. Following decades of productivity slowdowns fueled by labor declines and globalization, companies are leveraging artificial intelligence and automation to fill in the gaps and attract the next generation of workers.

However, the vast majority of manufacturers in the small to medium-sized tier are struggling to evolve, according to academics. In Cleveland, Ohio, for example, metalworkers today are still using the same milling machines used in the 1940s, said Suzanne Berger, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-director of the university's Initiative for New Manufacturing.

There are no robots. There are no 3D printers. Instead, metal fabricators are looking for people who can operate the equipment they have at a wage of $13 per hour, Berger said — “unless an Amazon warehouse down the street opens up, then [they’ll] have to pay $15 an hour.”

Over the past 20 years, Berger, alongside her colleagues and students, have traveled to factories around the world, interviewing manufacturers about their operations and workforces, and found that U.S. companies are not as technologically competitive as hoped, but rather stuck in a “low-end trap.”

“We have low tech, low skill, low wages, low productivity, and you can't really fix any one of these pieces without trying to really pull this 'knot' apart,” she said. “And, the question is, how do we do that?”

Recently, MIT launched its Initiative for New Manufacturing, an institute-wide effort to reinfuse U.S. industrial production with the latest technologies to bolster economic sectors and ignite job creation.

Through a mix of research, hands-on training and collaboration with corporate partners, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university plans to build the tools and talent to shape a more productive and sustainable future for manufacturing.

“We want to work with firms big and small … in cities, and small towns, and everywhere in between … to help them adopt new approaches for increased productivity,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth said during a May 7 speech about the initiative.

The first seven consortium member companies involved with the initiative are Amgen, Autodesk, Flex, GE Vernova, PTC, Sanofi and Siemens. They will initially support seed projects related to AI in manufacturing, with plans to expand into other topics, according to a news release. Each company has agreed to provide $1.5 million over a three-year period as part of the initiative, an MIT spokesperson said.

The program, led by Berger and colleagues John Hart and Chris Love, who teach mechanical engineering and chemical engineering, respectively, grew from a desire to bring together separate strands of activity that exist at MIT to focus on manufacturing.

This was done, in part, because “we think manufacturing in the United States is, frankly, in pretty bad shape,” Berger said.

Manufacturing looks to rebuild its sector after immense losses

After U.S. manufacturing employment peaked at 19.6 million workers in 1979, that number fell during each of the five recessions and never fully recovered, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of April, there were roughly 13 million manufacturing workers across the country.

Much of this decline occurred in the decade after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, Berger said, resulting in “tremendous shrinkage in the industrial ecosystem” as companies began to outsource and offshore.

Over this period, large firms like Kodak and IBM shrank or filed for bankruptcy, and their influence over the industrial ecosystem — through investments in workforce training, supplier partnerships and more — also began to fade. As a result, manufacturers have struggled with worker shortages and “we now have companies that rarely upgrade their equipment,” Berger said.

In 2023, MIT conducted a study that found less than 10% of U.S. manufacturers have deployed robots on their shop floors, citing design limitations, workforce challenges and high integration costs. In terms of AI, Berger said factories haven’t adopted the technology in a meaningful way yet.

“The few examples of using AI in factories now are mainly for machine vision, for quality control and predictive maintenance," she said. "But even there, there's a very low rate of adoption."

To help accelerate technology adoption and manufacturing productivity, MIT’s New Manufacturing Initiative has mapped out a series of education and industry partnership programs, including plans to establish new labs and a “factory observation” effort that allows students to visit production sites. The university also plans to partner with community colleges through MIT’s TechAmp program to bridge the gap between technicians and engineers.

“As American industry faces growing challenges, we need technologies that can respond in real time,” Peter Koerte, Siemens’ CTO and CSO, said in a statement. “This collaboration with MIT brings together the best of research and real-world implementation.”

Over the next three years, Siemens has pledged to invest the expected $1.5 million to fund research, innovation and training through MIT’s manufacturing initiative, with a focus on AI-driven technologies and workforce development.

The collaboration comes as manufacturers look to invest in the U.S. as volatile tariffs pressure operations and hike prices. In March, Siemens completed its $10 billion acquisition of Michigan-based software company Altair and recently opened manufacturing facilities in Fort Worth, Texas, and Pomona, California. 

Energy company GE Vernova, which has committed $50 million over the next five years to MIT research and innovation, is also investing nearly $600 million to expand and update its factories and facilities across the nation to meet surging electrical demand.

Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Vernova, posted on LinkedIn about MIT’s partnership, highlighting its focus around driving innovation, enhancing production and scaling new manufacturing through research and breakthroughs in technology.

“We’re entering a new era where energy, manufacturing, and economic prosperity are deeply intertwined,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Program’s like MIT’s #INM are essential to ensuring we don’t just keep up, but we lead. Proud to see this kind of vision and collaboration taking shape. The future of energy will be built, quite literally, by what we make next.”

Another key part of MIT’s manufacturing effort is to address the skills gap across the industry, but the definition of what that means can vary from sector to sector. Semiconductor makers may seek workers who can operate advanced machine learning equipment. Meanwhile, a number of companies are struggling to find workers who can operate older, sometimes outdated, machinery.

“The skill he wants is someone who can work on his 1940s machines,” Berger said about one of the metal worker owners she spoke with. “But I don’t think most of us in this country think that we ought to be educating people to work on 1940s machines.”

Tech advancements continued to reshape the manufacturing labor outlook. 

Smart factories and artificial intelligence integration are boosting productivity and customization. However, these trends have often been at odds with the industry’s ability to retain and attract talent. 

There were approximately 465,000 manufacturing job openings in October 2024, according to the National Association of Manufacturers, and more than 55% of respondents to NAM’s Q4 2024 survey cited the “inability to attract and retain employees” as a top business challenge. 

A closer look at this challenge, however, reveals that a bigger obstacle is not just in finding talent, but specifically in attracting workers who can understand the new technologies dominating changing workplaces. 

“The growing adoption of industry 4.0 technologies is pushing demand in these positions, yet, manufacturers are struggling to find workers with that required expertise in the advanced technologies, such as auto automation, robotics, data science, etc.” said Society for Manufacturing Engineers Senior Business Advisor and Director of Sales Operations Denise Leipold.

Whether it’s repair or maintenance workers, testers or data analysts, a growing number of manufacturing roles are expected to command a basic understanding of the new equipment and environments they’re working in. 

On the other hand, workers are looking for opportunities that are expansive in the types of training offered, and importantly, in their contributions to future career options, says National Institute of Standards and Technology Education and Workforce Development Manager Brad Conrad. And today, many workers don’t see manufacturing jobs — especially ones that require increasingly niche skills — as meeting those needs.

Read on for a glimpse into the manufacturing job market in 2025, including what manufacturers say are their greatest labor and skills needs. 

Jobs are reflecting evolving shop floors

Workers must acquaint themselves with new knowledge areas to keep up with changing technologies, including AI and data analytics. While this imperative has long been accepted as a nice bonus, it’s quickly become an essential priority for workers in advanced manufacturing.

“The ability for workers to either be comfortable with technology or to use technology around a specific process is becoming more important,” Conrad said. 

According to Leipold, key occupations that manufacturers are looking to fill are maintenance and repair workers. 

“[These roles see] a vast numb of job openings — about 160,000 in 2024 — and [have] persistent gaps because of a high turnover rate,” said Leipold. “This is all driven, obviously, by advances in technology adoption. People need to be able to maintain and repair more complex types of machines, such as 3D printers, robotics, automation equipment, and understand how that type of equipment can be sustained within an operation.” 

People on the front lines of manufacturing work, such as inspectors, testers and sorters are also in high demand due to their high turnover rates, Leipold added. As with maintenance work, these roles increasingly demand technical expertise. 

“What I’m hearing is that manufacturers, specifically advanced manufacturers, really put a value on people who are generalists that might have a couple of tech skills and can do lots of things,” Conrad said. 

Other in-demand openings reflect the industry’s trend toward advanced tech in a more pronounced way.

Computer numerical control programmers, for example, are becoming “increasingly critical,” according to Leipold. 

In one survey conducted by MxD in October 2023 about the industry’s highest priority roles, skills and competencies for talent, the majority of respondents noted a need for data-focused functions such as data analytics and data annotation, cybersecurity analytics and supply chain compliance, and augmented reality and virtual reality,” said MxD’s Director of Workforce Programs Angela Accurso.

Upskilling and the perception battle

The misconception that manufacturing is dark, dirty and dangerous — has long plagued the industry’s ability to expand its talent pool, according to Conrad. 

But today’s manufacturers will additionally have to address applicants who look beyond safe working environments and seek out “a connection to purpose, flexibility, development and an inclusive culture that lives their values,” said American Transmission Company Director of Talent Management Kristy Rupprecht.

“It's becoming very clear that workers know their value, want a variety of options to do their training and want to make sure that the things that they're spending time on not just support the company, but also support them,” Conrad said. “Workers are looking for opportunities that are helpful long-term.”

The first step in attracting such applicants is to draw a clearer connection between the industry and people’s existing interests and talents. 

“Manufacturing is a tough industry for people to see how their interests in products or industries, and their skills and abilities, equate to manufacturing,” Leipold said. “You don’t have a lot of people who might say, ‘I love cars’ or ‘I love my iPhone,’ and then understand how that type of interest equates to a career in manufacturing.” 

That kind of familiarity — or lack of it — can often make or break a potential applicant’s desire to pursue a role in manufacturing in more ways than one.

“One of the biggest challenges is not just educating potential workers, but also educating the support networks and communities of workers,” Conrad said. “Let’s say there was somebody who thought, ‘Oh, maybe I could go into advanced manufacturing,’ But their parents or friendships don’t see that as a viable career pathway — that might stop [that potential career] right there.” 

The next step is to make upskilling accessible and show employees the usefulness of such skills beyond their immediate roles. 

Outside of structured learning environments, workers might consider stackable certificates or micro certificates, Conrad said. He added that many programs often offer online or hybrid learning models.

Importantly, workers should be confident that they can carry such skills with them “throughout their lives,” and that they can secure “a lot of options in the future for advancement,” Conrad said.