Not everyone goes to college after graduation. A job as a skilled worker can provide a higher salary than one at a fast food restaurant.
Now Hiring.
The words are emblazoned on a banner outside of LidWorks, a Plant City-based company that manufactures drink lids for popular restaurants across the United States, from Jamba Juice and Burger King to Checkers and Yogurtland.
The company has made a name for itself in Plant City over the last 31 years, and the hiring banner can be seen from Turkey Creek Road. But despite the advertisements, the award-winning company has put out for workers, applications — especially for skilled workers, such as process engineers — aren’t coming in as quickly as Ugo Mazzarolo, the company’s vice president and general manager, would like.
“We’re having trouble finding skilled workers,” Mazzarolo said. “We feel it every day.”
LidWorks isn’t alone. The lack of skilled labor in the manufacturing industry has been noticed by employers across the U.S. According to Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, the U.S. faces a shortage of two million skilled workers over the next 10 years.
In Plant City, where manufacturing companies line Airport Road, the shortage has local companies concerned and local organizations stepping in to make a positive change.
Training for the Future
As the final Baby Boomers in the manufacturing industry prepare for retirement, millennials are failing to step into the open positions.
In 2014, 65.9% of high school graduates pursued college, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Those who didn’t attend joined the military or the workforce. Those in the workforce didn’t always go to a job with the opportunity for growth or where the money was. In 2013, out of 60,000 households surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the labor workforce had 18,057 workers between the ages of 16 and 24. Out of these workers, 2,105 held a job in the manufacturing industry, compared to the 3,181 in food service industries.
At LidWorks, Mazzarolo said that he does hire unskilled workers, but many of them are seasonal.
“The vast majority of seasonal workers are female,” Mazzarolo said. “They are generally either young people or moms. The young ones are looking for a career, and the moms are earning a second salary for their households.”
Typically, these unskilled workers are packers, material handlers and production assistants. Though they may be laid off after LidWorks’ busy season tails off in winter, Mazzarolo tries to hire back former seasonal workers on a full-time basis.
With the right training, these workers can become skilled and eventually move up within the company — an alternative that Mazzarolo has had to take at LidWorks with the challenges of finding skilled employers.
He said that the majority of skilled workers in the manufacturing industry are typically found in northern states: Ohio, Pennyslvania, New Jersey.
“Those are really central locations for the type of industry workers we’re looking for,” Mazzarolo said. “The state of Florida doesn’t have that industry.”
Because of this, Mazzarolo has training programs in place to help unskilled workers eventually fill those empty slots at LidWorks.
“We always try and get the people back that we lay off,” Mazzarolo said. “We’ve got employees who have been with us since day one.”
Rehiring makes training the employees cheaper too.
“Training can be costly if they’re seasonal,” Mazzarolo said. “The cost of efficiency and laying people off is high. We try to get them trained quickly and effectively.”
Mazzarolo said that the manufacturing industry, especially at companies like LidWorks, is a viable option for anyone who wants to become a skilled worker, provide for their family or find a career path.
“We’re a stable company,” he said. “Every hire, we intend on keeping them longterm. We just have a philosophy that we want to be a good company.”
Aging Workforce
Just minutes away from LidWorks on Airport Road, executives at Armor Products are telling the same story.
David Carmichael is the owner of Armor Products, a Plant City-based company that manufactures everything from soft luggage to diving bags.
“This industry is pretty unique,” Carmichael said. “We’re looking for people who are well-rounded, can work during the day and can use a variety of sewing machines.”
Surprisingly, filling the company’s need for skilled sewers has been anything but easy — and the people who make up that workforce are everchanging.
“You don’t find as many Anglo-women sewing anymore,” he said. “It’s mostly the immigrant population, and they’re not all hirable because they must be legal.”
Carmichael added that most of his current sewing workforce is Hispanic.
“As long as a person can sew and do the job, I don’t care,” he said. “In this area, it happens to be mostly Hispanic.”
The desire for skilled workers is such an issue for Amor Products that the company has advertised jobs
everywhere it can think of, from Spanish-speaking stations to job-listing site Indeed.com.
“Typically we can find one or two people,” Carmichael said. “Then it gets more difficult. There’s a lot of sewing operations in the Tampa Bay area. I’ll bet, not including upholsters … that there’s at least a dozen.”
Carmichael has noticed that younger people don’t have the skill sets his company requires.
“The available workforce is getting older all the time, and younger people aren’t going into the (textile) workforce,” he said.
At their separate companies, Mazzarolo and Carmichael have done all they can think of to attract workers to their companies: benefits at LidWorks, a starting hourly wage of at least $9 at Armor Products and the opportunity to move up at both.
But so far, the best way the companies have been able to retain skilled workers is by training unskilled workers to take their place.
Upwards Incentives
Mazzarolo has taken on the challenge to find skilled workers.
At his company of about 150, he offers training programs and continuing education programs, including one called LidWorks Leadership for Life. Current employees have to apply. If selected, they are sent to a course at Hillsborough Community College. Once completed, they are assigned projects at the company and assigned with a mentor who helps them hone their skills — and move up in the company to a skilled position.
“The whole program lasts six months,” Mazzarolo said. “We like to have a diverse workforce. … There are
about six guys who started low and worked their way up to being just under a lead process technician.”
LidWorks offers competitive benefits, including a 401(k) package and medical benefits, to all employees no matter their positions.
Local organizations, too, have noticed the lack of skilled workers in the manufacturing industry and are holding job expos to recruit workers.
Florida TRADE is a federally-funded grant that encourages manufacturing careers at 12 schools across Florida. With the help of project manager Miguel Garcia, the program recently partnered with the Plant City Economic Development Corp. to host two job expos in Brandon and Plant City. The expos are set for April and September.
The job expos will be geared toward education about manufacturing.
“It’s not a grungy shop where you get paid minimum wage,” Jake Austin, Plant City EDC President, said. “A lot of employers are desperate for quality manufacturers. This is to generate more of a talent pipeline for these companies. Local manufacturers are always hiring, and these are great jobs.”
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.
