Catherine GloverCLEVELAND, Tenn. – The message was clearly stated at a recent Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce industrial appreciation event: Tennessee is experiencing a “manufacturing renaissance” but still needs to increase the number of skilled laborers.
More than 100 industry professionals got a state-level perspective on unskilled labor concerns confronting local manufacturers in a presentation by Catherine Glover, president of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Tennessee Manufacturers Association.
“With the mass exodus of baby boomers [from the manufacturing sector] there is a major skills gap and employment gap in the state of Tennessee and, indeed, almost every state in the nation,” Glover said. “We need to fix that. It is a crisis, and we need to recognize it as such.”
The impact will be keenly felt in the next five years as the baby boom generation retires, especially by smaller companies that often do not consider succession planning, Glover said.
The concern is already on the minds of local economic and government officials.