Carolyn Lee: Manufacturers are Pittsburgh's future

An artist from Pittsburgh created the famous image of Rosie the Riveter back in the 1940s. During World War II, Rosie inspired countless women to do their part to help the war effort by working in manufacturing, building the munitions and supplies our troops needed for victory.

With the spread of covid-19, America has faced another historic crisis, and again, manufacturers have risen to the occasion to keep us safe. As the country recovers from the pandemic, we’ll need many more talented young people to heed the call to get to work making things.

We’re leaning on manufacturing workers to make the household goods and critical medical equipment and protective gear we need to weather this latest crisis — and to emerge stronger than before. And that’s why we’re putting out a call for more of them. The industry will need millions more manufacturing workers before the decade is over.

The commonwealth — and Pittsburgh in particular — has always been a home for manufacturing. Last year, there were 565,000 manufacturing employees across Pennsylvania. These jobs support families, with salaries and benefits totaling an average of around $76,000. And the industry represented more than 10% of the commonwealth’s economy in recent years.

It’s fortunate that the manufacturing base exists. At a time when Pittsburghers have been confronted with the seemingly unthinkable reality of shortages of basic household goods, local manufacturers are working overtime to keep supply chains and the economy intact.

But the biggest threat is the ongoing danger covid-19 poses to public health, and manufacturers have played a major role here as well. Well-known Pittsburgh brands, such as PPG and Covestro, have mobilized to support relief efforts. Local businesses like Wabtec Corp. and Tronix3D have gone above and beyond to aid medical first responders. The companies produced large numbers of face shields for hospitals as the spread of covid-19 intensified. This lifesaving equipment and other critical manufactured goods made it possible for doctors and nurses to treat safely the many patients exposed to the virus.

Those are just some companies that helped keep covid-19 at bay, and there are countless others. But just as there have been shortages of hospital beds and personal protective equipment, America confronts a shortage of manufacturing workers.

The organization I lead, The Manufacturing Institute — the workforce development and education partner of the National Association of Manufacturers — is committed to raising awareness of the growing skills gap in the industry. According to a 2018 study by the MI and Deloitte, as many as 2.4 million manufacturing jobs will go unfilled by 2028, in large part due to a shortage of highly skilled workers to do those jobs.

Another complication is that many Americans don’t understand that manufacturing is not what it was when our grandparents and great-grandparents worked on assembly lines and factories during World War II. Manufacturing has evolved with the times, and it’s now a high-tech, safe and modern industry.

We want to help. The MI is partnering with businesses across Pennsylvania and the rest of the country for our annual Manufacturing Day Oct. 2. We welcome you to join us for MFG Day, when businesses will provide virtual tours and information for young people and others who are interested in how manufacturing is keeping the country up and running. You can learn more at creatorswanted.org.

Pittsburgh still has the same spirit it had in the 1940s, when Rosie the Riveter reminded Americans “we can do it!” The pandemic has shown us that not all heroes wear scrubs — the engineers, assembly line workers, skilled tradespeople and the rest of the cast of thousands you find on a manufacturing shop floor are all doing their part to keep us safe. I hope you’ll consider joining their ranks.

Carolyn Lee is executive director of The Manufacturing Institute.