80 percent of woodworking companies are struggling to hire. 65 percent are taking a drastic step to alleviate: raising pay.

 

The lack of skilled and unskilled labor is among the most dominant issues plaguing the wood manufacturing industry. Low unemployment rates, rural shop locations, and millennial low interest and work ethic are just a few of the causes, according to many wood product executives.

 

We wanted to find out how the readers of Woodworking Network are dealing with this issue, so we put out a survey. We asked readers if the companies they work for are having trouble finding labor. We wanted to know what they're doing to find workers. Are they lowering hiring standards? Raising pay? Offering financial incentives to employees who refer new workers?

 

80 percent of survey respondents said their company was having trouble finding labor. 65 percent of those said they were raising pay in an effort to attract more work. Many others are lowering hiring standards and using Craigslist and Facebook ads. 

 

One interesting written response: "Praying for immigration to increase."

 

We asked what they felt was causing the lack of labor. Is it an overall lack of interest? Impending automation? Too physically demanding?

 

Exactly 80 percent of survey-takers said the work ethics of millennials and Gen-Z(the generation following millennials) were a problem in their workplace.

 

We will be presenting the complete findings in a webinar Tuesday, February 26 from 1-1:30 pm CST. FDMC magazine Editor-in-Chief Will Sampson and WWN Daily Brief Editor Robert Dalheim will discuss the survey results and field questions and comments from the audience.

 

The webinar, sponsored by the 2019 Executive Briefing Conference, is expected to shine a light on the seemingly intractable problems of finding workers. Industry educators and human resource managers are facing a challenging situation on the workforce front, and the subject will be addressed by human resource managers and educators at EBC 2019.  

 

Stay tuned for more articles on the survey findings in the upcoming days.