Despite economic uncertainty, manufacturing holds its own
Amid the chaos of the past three years — with the pandemic, supply chain issues, labor shortages, inflation, wage increases — manufacturing operations have had their hands full.
Interestingly, despite all the upheaval, manufacturers in Maine grew the workforce by nearly 2% between 2019 and this year. At the same time, wages grew by 14.7%, according to state Department of Labor data.
Bath Iron Works reported recently that in the past decade it invested $130 million in recruitment and training.
It may not be what anyone would call heady times, but the manufacturing industry has held its own in these turbulent times.
As Senior Writer Renee Cordes reports in our cover story, a number of manufacturers continue to look for employees. Bath Iron Works, Franklin Printing and Puritan Medical Products Co. are all in growth modes and are continually seeking out employees. They’re finding a competitive hiring environment. “There’s a lot of competition,” says one GM. “There were times when we didn’t react fast enough and the person accepted another job — I mean in a day or two after speaking to the recruiter, not a matter of weeks.” See Renee’s story, “Widgets, workers and wages,” which starts on Page 10.
Also on the recruiting side of things, we talked to Hinckley Yachts, which has more than 700 employees on the East Coast and 250 Maine, about its hiring efforts. Working with the Landing School in Arundel, Hinckley is hoping to retrain traditional tradespeople to become boatbuilders. All of those skills are needed in the sophisticated Hinckley Yachts, but with some variations. For more on this, see “Calling carpenters, electricians and mechanics,” which starts on Page 19.
For a far different environment, Senior Writer Laurie Schreiber looks at Maine manufacturers that are focusing their efforts on NASA projects or other types of spacecraft and equipment. As she reports, the extreme temperatures and conditions in space pose a whole new set of challenges for manufacturers. See “Maine aims for the stars,” which starts on Page 14.
See our list of Maine’s largest manufacturers, which is on Page 26.
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