In coordination with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the Manufacturing Institute/Center for Workforce Success, Deloitte Consulting LLP launched the 2005 Skills Gap Report – A Survey of the American Manufacturing Workforce.

The study identifies how manufacturers are managing their workforce to remain productive and competitive, and includes factors contributing to the “skills gap” in the industry. According to the study, the serious shortage of qualified employees that a vast majority of U.S. manufacturers are now experiencing is taking an increasingly negative toll on America’s ability to compete in the global economy.

The results detail the breadth and depth of the skill shortage, the negative impact of the shortages on business operations and the extraordinary increase in employee performance requirements.

The picture that emerges is both more complex and more disturbing than in the past, because it exposes a broadening gap between the availability of skilled workers and the employee performance requirements of modern manufacturing. Specifically, the research finds:

• Today’s skill shortages are extremely broad and deep, cutting across industry sectors and having an impact on more than 80 percent of companies surveyed
• Skills shortages are having a widespread impact on manufacturers’ abilities to achieve production levels, increase productivity and meet customer demands
• High-performance workforce requirements have significantly increased as a result of the skills gap shortage and the challenge of competing in a global economy, according to nearly 75 percent of survey respondents

The confluence of these trends and the increasingly competitive global environment have created an extraordinary gap between the supply of skills available and the performance requirements of the workforce needed for modern global manufacturing. This human capital performance gap threatens our nation’s ability to compete in today’s fast-moving and increasingly demanding global economy. It is emerging as our nation’s most critical business issue.

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Services: Manufacturing