Quality manufacturing can only occur with qualified workers on the shop floor. Unfortunately, the most necessary jobs are often the most difficult jobs to fill. CNC machine shops, production, and automation depend on skilled labor. And although the manufacturing industry on the whole is on the rise, for years now, there has been a shortage in the workforce that is limiting machine shops from finding great talent and fulfilling their needs.

This is in part due to the large number of Baby Boomers retiring from skilled labor positions, and young workers not entering into the workforce at a sufficient enough rate. A Deloitte and Manufacturing Institute study predicted American manufacturers will need to fill 3.5 million jobs by 2025, but also prognosticate 2 million of those spots will remain vacant due to the lack of skilled manufacturing jobs. So why has machining—and skilled labor in general—struggled to attract new talent?

“It is a two-fold failure, one on the part of the mass manufacturing industry and two on the vision of the current employment pool of potential candidates,” stated John MacDonald, president of