Exploring Ohio's Pipeline of Manufacturing Workers

A recent brief published by the Rand Corporation highlighted the demand for highly-skilled manufacturing workers will outpace supply in coming years, and this shortage may grow as the U.S. manufacturing industry grows and its labor needs shift.

RAND researchers focused on Ohio because the state has one of the nation's largest manufacturing industries, and as such may be instructive for understanding the challenges and opportunities of expanding the manufacturing sector.

Both nationally and in Ohio, male and white workers make up the majority of the manufacturing workforce, and women are more underrepresented in manufacturing than in other industries. This highlights potential for drawing more women into the sector. 

The good news is the number of students pursuing manufacturing-related education in Ohio’s public postsecondary institutions has increased in recent years. This growth has been concentrated in fouryear programs and, to a lesser extent, Ohio Technical Centers. The number of students earning an associate degree in manufacturing-related fields has also been increasing.

AND Students who enter manufacturing in Ohio after completing a manufacturing-related credential earn higher wages than Ohio students with manufacturing-related credentials who enter other industries, and this wage gap persists for at least five years.

However, among individuals who complete a manufacturing-related credential in Ohio, more than 80% are white, and more than 85% are male. 

The researchers also examined pathways into the manufacturing workforce among recent entrants to Ohio’s workforce. 64% of these workers entered manufacturing from a job in another Ohio industry, and only 11% entered from an Ohio postsecondary institution. These numbers highlight that movement from other industries into manufacturing is important for bolstering the pipeline of manufacturing workers and that education is not currently a major pipeline.

Thus, there appears to be a much larger supply of highly skilled workers with manufacturing-related expertise than is currently being utilized by the manufacturing industry. Identifying the reasons for this attrition and ways to reduce it will be important for growing the pipeline of highly skilled workers and expanding the diversity of the workforce.

Additionally, upskilling rates are relatively low, so there appears to be room for improvement. Upskilling may be beneficial for workers because it is associated with pay increases and beneficial for employers because some evidence suggests that skills-based hiring is associated with higher retention.6 It also may be useful for women, who tend to pursue subsequent postsecondary education (i.e., subsequent to being in the manufacturing workforce) at relatively high rates but are much less likely than men to pursue manufacturing-related training.

This also suggests that such industries as administrative and support and waste management and remediation services (ASWMRS), retail trade, wholesale trade, and accommodation and food services could be promising areas for expanding the pipeline of manufacturing workers. Employers could do more to advertise job opportunities among these types of workers, focusing on the relative advantages of working in the manufacturing industry compared with these related industries.