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Will Millennials Change Manufacturing?

Will Millennials Change Manufacturing?

Dark, dirty and dangerous -- mention the 3Ds of old-time manufacturing and HR managers shudder. It's exactly the image they don't want the public -- or millennials considering careers in manufacturing -- to have of the industry. They want to be able to talk about an industry that is attractive and safe, innovative, even cool. So it must gladden the hearts of Lockheed Martin recruiters when Emilee Bianco talks about being "excited" to work at Lockheed Martin Space System's fac

Where Small Town America Is Thriving

Where Small Town America Is Thriving

Big city America has long demonstrated a distaste for its smaller cousins. This sentiment has, if anything, intensified with the election of President Donald Trump, whose improbable victory was made possible by strong support in small cities and towns across the country. Once exemplars of de Tocquevillian American exceptionalism, now they’re subject to such jibes as a Silicon Valley executive's infamous assertion last year that “no educated person wants to live in a s***hole

Eighty Years Later: The Fair Labor Standards Act

Eighty Years Later: The Fair Labor Standards Act

Eighty years ago today, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was signed, creating the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) at the Department of Labor. This landmark legislation established several long-standing pillars of our modern workplace, including the minimum wage, the 40-hour workweek, and overtime. Though much has changed in the American workplace since 1938, the FLSA endures as a vital piece of legislation that ensures Americans receive wages they have earned. Today, WHD’s ed

How A 137-Year Manufacturer Copes With The Growing Skills Gap

How A 137-Year Manufacturer Copes With The Growing Skills Gap

One of the biggest challenges facing just about every business today is finding and keeping quality employees. It’s a dramatic narrative shift from the aftermath of the Great Recession where so many people found themselves looking for work. Now, companies simply cannot find enough people to fill their open positions. That’s especially true in sectors where workers need to have specific high-tech skill-sets, like IT or specialized manufacturing, where it can be especially diff

Help Wanted | Educators retool programs toward workforce needs

Help Wanted | Educators retool programs toward workforce needs

For Pennsylvania’s institutions of higher learning, the mission is clear. Their job is not simply to educate students; it is to prepare them to enter a workforce that increasingly is demanding higher levels of learning to fill the jobs available. The Center for Workforce Information and Analysis of the state Department of Labor Industry has prepared a list of “high priority occupations” for 2018. The center divided the state into 22 regions, and in 17 of them, at least seven

Is manufacturing the answer to the joblessness that plagues parts of Chicago?

Is manufacturing the answer to the joblessness that plagues parts of Chicago?

Chicago, like other parts of the nation, is witness to two seemingly contradictory trends: persistently high unemployment in parts of its low-income communities, and thousands of job openings that employers struggle to fill. Could manufacturing be a key to bridging the gap? In a new report, researchers from the Century Foundation and the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute highlight the opportunity for manufacturers to address their talent needs by tapp

United Steelworkers leader: Punish China, not Canada

United Steelworkers leader: Punish China, not Canada

United Steelworkers union president Leo Gerard expressed anger and frustration Tuesday over growing trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada, saying the longtime allies should have a united approach to attacking China and other countries responsible for the troubled state of their steel and aluminum industries. “Instead of fighting with each other, we should be fighting with the real culprits,” Mr. Gerard, the son of a Canadian union miner, said in a telephone interview. Th

Marketing Your Manufacturing Organization -- Content Drives Success

Marketing Your Manufacturing Organization -- Content Drives Success

Manufacturers have historically relied on a combination of reseller channels and traditional marketing efforts (i.e., print/online advertising and events) to market and grow their businesses. Although those efforts may continue to pay some dividends, the Internet is where the true opportunity lies. More and more business decision-makers looking to manufacturing equipment and services are starting their search on the Web. According to a 2007 Forrester study, over 90% of buyers

Wolf hoping for on-time budget, more money for workforce initiatives

Wolf hoping for on-time budget, more money for workforce initiatives

While he doesn't believe he will get a long-desired severance tax on natural-gas drilling in the next state budget, Gov. Tom Wolf said he is hoping for more funding to help companies find skilled workers. In a speech Monday before the Harrisburg Regional Chamber and Capital Region Economic Development Corp., the governor said he is optimistic that lawmakers will pass a 2018-2019 budget by the June 30 deadline. Education, health care and pensions take up a big part of the gove

The Next Page: #Them too — women who toiled in steel mills faced their own harassers

The Next Page: #Them too — women who toiled in steel mills faced their own harassers

Blue-collar women faced abuse long before a series of sexual harassment scandals shined a light on white-collar predators Ask any woman if she’d return to her job as a steelworker during the 1970s and ’80s, and she’d say yes in a nanosecond, even while describing the daily fear of being maimed or killed. Women felt empowered doing men’s work, earned better money than pink-collar wage earners and even loved the steel plants for their hypnotic dangers. “I always felt I was watc

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