Robots or Job Training: Manufacturers Grapple with How to Improve Their Economic Fortunes

This is an article about robots or job training: manufacturers grapple with how to improve their economic fortunes. In this articles, Anthony Nighswander stated that the rate of unemployment is lower it is not a good things for businesses and worker. This is because that will create economic problem which is productivity growth has been slow. Recently, rate of unemployment has fallen below 4 per cent as a result of a business boom. Mr.Nighswander is president of APT Manufacturing Solutions in Hicksville, Ohio, which makes and installs robots equipment. He says low unemployment has led to calls every day from different companies seeking help from robots to address worker shortages.

 However, Mr.Nighswander also faced the problem in his own business which is lacks of technical personnel but he decides to use job training instead of install robots. In 2015, APT opened a training center for students to learn different technical courses. Mr Nighswander admits that while many students will not continue to work at APT after graduation, companies will have to do it themselves when skilled labor is scarce. This is because he thinks that if companies are unwilling to invest in education, they will have to steal an employee from another employer.

 In Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on the other hand, there is a small packaging company. The director, David Maretto, says the local unemployment rate is below 3 percent, making it increasingly difficult to find workers. The company prepares beer for Mr. Miller and other brewers, who are particularly hard pressed to reach unskilled workers. He said although found new workers filling vacancies but they were very unreliable, often late, playing their phones during working time, or ask for leave. David Marretto indicated that sometimes they need to shut a line down due to many orders without enough time to packaging well for customers.

 Mr Marretto tried to raise wages first by 25 per cent and then by 20 per cent. However, this is not a long-term solution, partly because his multiyear contracts with some customers have made it hard for him to raise prices. So Mr Marretto decided to turn to automation and loaned $1 million to pay for equipment. He believes that this is the right decision because the labor force is getting less and less. Lastly, Mr Marretto mentioned that if they don't automate things, they won't start moving forward, and then they will become laggards.

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