The electronics manufacturing industry this week released a frank assessment of widespread technology workforce challenges in a 20-page whitepaper issued by the global IPC trade group and co-authored by IPC CEO John Mitchell.
The report declares the industry “stands at a critical juncture” and is already facing a severe shortage of qualified workers. It lays out a strategy for an industry-driven talent pipeline and system to develop career pathways to cultivate a pool of qualified job candidates.
Doing so will require “significant investments in training and education initiatives,” according to the whitepaper, “Building Electronics Better: A plan to address the workforce challenges facing the Electronics Manufacturing Industry.” The whitepaper itself does not enumerate the cost of such investments, but experts in electronics and related technologies have projected 10-year investments in the billions of dollars for combined industry, government and education across multiple geographies. While IPC is a global trade group representing 3,200 member companies, part of the whitepaper focuses on US workforce concerns.
In stark language, the report describes the workforce challenge in the US as a “byproduct of four key failures: lack of an industry-driven pipeline, the lack of effective and efficient onboarding programs, the lack of a career pathway system and the lack of rapid upskilling infrastructure.”
The electronics industry possesses “no well-defined and established school-to-industry pipeline which exacerbates the challenges precipitated by accelerated retirements, a widening skills gap and geographic imbalances of labor, “ the report adds.
Key elements of the plan:
1. Establish partnerships between educational institutions, businesses, government agencies and nonprofits to ensure a steady flow of skilled workers.
2. Implement career pathways that outline the progression from entry level to advanced roles.
3. Invest in effective training and education for jobs in electronics manufacturing, including technical and soft skills.
4. Improve the perception of manufacturing careers and address misconceptions about manufacturing jobs.
5. Foster collaboration and support between academia and industry to streamline the transition of students to internships, apprenticeships and mentorships.
6. Use standard credentials to validate skills of job candidates to make it easier for employers to assess and hire qualified workers.
By 2031, US manufacturing alone is expected to have 2.1 million unfilled jobs, according to the whitepaper. The overall global electronic manufacturing services (EMS) market is expected to grow to $836 billion in 2030, up from $534 in 2023, while at the same time baby boomer retirements reach about 10,000 retirees per day.
IPC CEO John Mitchell
As one of three authors of the whitepaper and CEO of the IPC industry group, Mitchell takes the concern of the manufacturing labor pool and training to heart. He gave a keynote address at the IPC APEX event in Anaheim on Wednesday to describe the workforce gap and the whitepaper, but also focused on CEOs and hiring managers attending the event to encourage them to build up workplace environments that are conducive to attracting top talent. He urged his audience to boost learning and growth opportunities for employees.
After his address, he signed copies of his new book, Fire Your Hiring Habits: Building an Environment that Attracts Top Talent in Today’s Workforce.
In his role heading up IPC, Mitchell focuses on a variety of careers in manufacturing that include top engineers and managers as well as machine operators and technicians on factory floors. At one point in his keynote, he aimed at higher level institutions of learning in the needs of industrialization.
“Frankly, universities are failing us a little bit. They are just unprepared as they are struggling, looking to find [graduates] jobs. Graduates say they are unprepared and have felt unqualified to apply. “
Later, in an interview with Fierce Electronics, he explained: “Universities can’t keep up with the pace of technology changes and the needs of industry. They train on the basics and when a company hires someone and spends all that time in training, the companies face the same training burden and yet another delay. “
Mitchell and IPC endorse credentials and certifications, as well as apprenticeships. He credited Microsoft and Cisco for their certification programs, which in some cases make it possible to have a good job without a college degree.
“I advocate finding ways to credential technology workers to specific skills for work you do now. Jobs might change but an accrediting body will measure skills that teaching basics may never cover,” Mitchell told FE.
“Colleges are doing the best they can, but my big beef is that universities in the US, especially, grant degrees on time spent on courses, instead of granting degrees on competence. “
IPC focuses, primarily, on training people in the work force, but also works with 63 universities on pre-apprentice placements.
Mitchell: AI and automation's impact on the work force
The impact of AI and GenAI on the workforce is widely studied, and even well before generative AI’s impact was felt, economists have for decades evaluated the impact of automation on jobs.
In an older study, McKinsey tried to assess the global impact of automation and technology on jobs, finding across six large countries like China and the US that technology would actually create more jobs than those lost by 2030. (The study was well before GenAI’s impact on automation.)
In 2020, the World Economic Forum found in a survey that 97 million new jobs will be created across 26 major countries by a shift in the division of labor between humans and machines. However, 85 million jobs will be displaced, the WEF said.
In 2023, the WEF surveyed 803 companies employing 11 million workers and 45 economies. It found the impact of technologies on jobs is expected to be a net positive through 2027. It also found 23% of jobs will change by 2027. The portion of tasks completed by machines in 2022 was estimated at 34%, which is expected to rise to 43% by 2027.
At a more concrete level, Mitchell said he expects AI to replace some factory floor operators, but added, “they should plan to more to the technician level, a higher-skilled position. Operators roles are at risk.”
Regarding AI concerns, he concluded:
“I’m a believer in the human capacity to be relevant. Instead of AI being a death knell for the human worker, it can be a bell ringing to step up and do even greater things for humanity. Don’t be afraid of technology. Learn technology and be better for it.”
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