5th annual celebration of Manufacturing Day

By

Cassidy Mantor

Published
Oct 11, 2016

The Department of Commerce recently celebrated the fifth annual Manufacturing Day, an event designed to bring awareness to manufacturing careers and industry in America.

Manufacturing Day was first created by the Department of Commerce to draw attention to the skilled labor shortage within the manufacturing sector and its impact on the American economy.

Over 500,000 students, teachers, and professionals attended events across the country celebrating manufacturing as an innovative and inventive sector of American business.

Examples of community activations include speeches by Department of Commerce Secretaries in Portland, OR at Lam Research Facility, the world's second largest semiconductor manufacturer, as well as at the MLK Library in DC which houses laser cutters and 3D printers in its Fab Lab.

So far Manufacturing Day has proven valuable in changing mindsets of students and educators.

In the past 4 years, Manufacturing Day has grown from 240 events to several thousand events. Deloitte studies have found that 81% of student respondents and 93% of educators leave the events with a positive attitude towards manufacturing careers, finding them more interesting and innovative than before attending the events.

The Department of Commerce is pleased with the results so far, seeing that 300,000 manufacturing jobs remain unfilled to date. The goal is to keep "America open for business" as bleak numbers are forecasted in the next decade.

The Department projects that by 2024, the US economy will need to fill 2.2 million openings for production workers, half a million jobs for engineers, and an undetermined amount of jobs in emerging occupations.

Manufacturing Day is one such program the Department has instituted to help combat the scarcity of young talent in these fields.