11 ILManpower Manufacturing Articles for April 2022

Following national market trends and news helps ILManpower better understand and predict our local market trends. Therefore, our full-service team would like to share some of the manufacturing-related articles that we’re reading in April 2022.

Spotlight Article of April

• 3 Ways AR/VR Can Improve Manufacturing Processes While the ongoing skills gap, labor shortages and high employee turnover are threatening quality and efficiency standards in manufacturing, AV/VR comes to the rescue. This article explores three main applications for this technology in the manufacturing space: training, inspection, and production/assembly.

Manufacturing Articles

• March BLS jobs numbers released Friday revealed growth in manufacturing, with manufacturing employment now just 1% shy of its pre-COVID levels after adding 38,000 jobs in March.
• Manufacturing Quits Up 7% in February As Hiring Growth Lags At the same time, BLS also released that 22,000 people quit their durable goods manufacturing jobs in February, a 13.3% increase over the previous month. In the overall economy, quits rose by 2.2%, but in manufacturing they increased by 7%.

• Competing for talent: Recasting perceptions of manufacturing  Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute released their 2022 Manufacturing Perception Study last month, revealing that significantly more respondents believe that manufacturing jobs are innovative, and more respondents are likely to encourage their child to pursue a career in the industry (compared to 2017).
• Lighthouses reveal a playbook for responsible industry transformation The advanced factories of the Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) show how sustainability and workforce engagement can responsibly accelerate and scale Fourth Industrial Revolution transformation. Since 2018, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with McKinsey, has sought to recognize, encourage, and accelerate the at-scale digital transformation of manufacturing by launching what is now called the GLN, a community of manufacturers leading the way in the use of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies.
• Digitization could drive manufacturing beyond Industry 4.0 A look at how the Industry 4.0 (digital technologies, like the internet of things, artificial intelligence and big data analytics, applied in factories and plants to make the business more efficient and effective) is being outpaced by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (the significant shifts driven by these technologies and their usage).

Industry Insights

• Global Lighthouse Network: The Playbook for Responsible Industry Transformation (full playbook, referenced in section above). Explore the full Global Lighthouse Network (GLN) playbook for responsible industry transformation, developed by WEF in collaboration with McKinsey.
• Competing for talent: Recasting perceptions of manufacturing (full study, referenced in the “Lighthouses reveal a playbook for responsible industry transformation” article in section above). Read through the full, recently-released Manufacturing Institute 2022 Manufacturing Perception Study, which focuses on key takeaways of addressing the perception problem, promoting awareness, leveraging local presence, and attracting and retaining employees.
• COVID-19: Implications for business McKinsey’s most recent perspectives on the coronavirus outbreak and how organizations can prepare for the next normal.

Industry Insights – Graphics

Graphic #1: S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI

The S&P Global US Manufacturing PMI was revised slightly higher to 58.8 in March of 2022 from a preliminary of 58.5, pointing to the strongest growth in factory activity in six months, amid faster increases in output and new orders, as domestic and foreign client demand ticked higher. Although backlogs of work rose at a sharper pace firms noted that fewer supply bottlenecks allowed production to expand at a faster rate. Moreover, supplier delivery times deteriorated to the smallest extent since January 2021. Nonetheless, costs continued to soar, as the rate of input price inflation quickened to a marked pace. Encouraged by stronger demand conditions, firms stepped up their hiring activity, with some also noting a greater ability to find suitable candidates. Meanwhile, expectations regarding the outlook for output reached the highest since November 2020. (source: Trading Economics, 04/01/2022)

Graphic #2: Engineering & Manufacturing Job Volume

Data pulled from TalentNeuron shows the engineering & manufacturing job volume across the top locations in the US as of April 4, 2022.

Graphic #3: US Engineering & Manufacturing Jobs in Demand

Data pulled from Talent Neuron shows where US Engineering & Manufacturing jobs are most in demand, and at what volume as of April 4, 2022.

As a thought leader in the local manufacturing market for Aurora, Crystal Lake, Elgin and Yorkville, we at ILManpower would like to hear about your recruiting and staffing needs. Please contact us with any questions or use our Request Talent form for us to provide assistance with your needs.