Manufacturing in New Hampshire

Nationally, there are about 600,000 unfilled factory jobs.  But despite high unemployment, these jobs are proving all-but-impossible to fill, even in New Hampshire.  For one thing, most people don’t have the skills.  And many companies are handing over the training, and cost, of potential new workers to community colleges.  But that still doesn’t guarantee it will lead to new hires.

Although tourism is something of a signature industry for New Hampshire, the largest sector of the state’s economy–by far–is advanced manufacturing.  So-called “SMHT” (Smart Manufacturing/High Technology).

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Detroit automakers are creating thousands of new jobs amid a sales boom. And as they expand, their suppliers are racing to keep up, adding tens of thousands of new jobs.

At Bridgewater Interiors in Warren, Mich., for example, the pace is intense. Hundreds of union employees scurry to fill a growing list of orders. The factory floor is packed with stacks of foam cushions, seat covers and headrests.

Recently,

First of all, if you haven’t read Lila Shapiro’s article for the Huffington Post about the “skills mismatch” (we’ve been calling it the “skills gap”) in manufacturing, you need to.  Seriously.  It’s well worth the read.  If you’d like the condensed version, however, we’re happy to provide highlights.

Given that manufacturing got prominent play in the State of the State address and is a key piece of President Obama's new jobs initiative, StateImpact's in full-on data-slicing mode.

Recently, the White House has had manufacturing on the brain. From the State of the Union address to Vice President Joe Biden's recent visit to Albany Engineered Composites in Rochester, the Obama administration has been pushing its plan to create more jobs in the manufacturing sector.

Vice President Joe Biden visited a Rochester manufacturing plant to tout the administration’s economic policies.  Biden was upbeat, saying America is in the best position to continue to be the dominant economic power in the 21st century.

Speaking at Albany Engineered Composites, the vice president said the country should change tax law to reward companies that bring jobs home from overseas operations.

"We're committed to boost the trend," Biden said. "We're not the job creators.  And the best way to do that is to shed the policies of the last ten years that have encouraged investment to go abroad.  And discourage investment to be here. That's not anti-business.  It’s pro-business.”

Fifty years ago the city of Rochester was home to giant shoe factories. Hundreds of workers made a living working with leather and handling huge machines.

Rochester’s shoe factory era may be gone, but the city’s poet laureate wants to make sure it’s not forgotten.

For the past year Andrew Periale has been interviewing people who worked at the factories and he’s turning their words into poems that reflect what he calls “the language of work.” His group of eight actors will perform the poems in a reader's theater at the Rochester Public Library. He previews the performance with All Things Considered host Brady Carlson.

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