Kickstart: Closing the Opportunity Gap

As factories gear up in October for Manufacturing Day — technically it was Oct. 2 but companies are active the whole month — you'll hear a lot about the skills gap. The term refers to the troubles companies have finding employees, particularly in technical jobs, and how the youth recruitment at the heart of Manufacturing Day is seen as a long-term strategy to close that gap.

Now, manufacturing groups are gearing up to address what they're calling the Opportunity Gap.

The National Association of Manufacturers and its Task Force on Closing the Opportunity Gap released a report Sept. 25 calling for the industrial sector to find new ways to create job opportunities for people of color.

"By 2025, manufacturers commit to taking 50,000 tangible actions to increase equity and parity for underrepresented communities, creating 300,000 pathways to job opportunities for Black people and all people of color," NAM wrote. "In doing so, manufacturing will reflect the diversity of the overall U.S. workforce by 2030."

Veteran plastics executive Vicki Holt, CEO of Proto Labs Inc., sits on the opportunity gap task force.

I see NAM's focus on this as in line with its ongoing work to build pathways to recruit more women to manufacturing careers, something that its Manufacturing Institute has focused on in recent years.

There's obviously a lot of social unrest in our country now, and efforts to make society more equitable. But I think these efforts are also good business, a win-win for society and manufacturing.

Whether it's targeting young people in Manufacturing Day or increasing efforts to close opportunity or gender gaps, finding new ways to tap into overlooked groups for employees will make the whole industry stronger and ultimately make the industrial sector more competitive globally.

We'll have coverage in our Oct. 12 issue of plastics companies participating in this year's virtual Manufacturing Day events.

Speaking of troubles finding workers, our sister publication Crain's Detroit Business took a look at problems manufacturing companies are having filling jobs today, even with high unemployment during the pandemic.

One company they talked with was Team 1 Plastics in Albion, Mich. Unemployment in Calhoun County, where Team 1 is, stands at 10.9 percent, but the firm said it was having trouble filling $11-$12 entry-level positions.

The story quotes a number of Michigan manufacturers and allied organizations and notes a few factors to explain why, even with unemployment at its highest in decades, companies are still seeing problems.

They range from potential employees making more money from the heightened $600-a-week unemployment benefits that ended in July, to concerns about whether it's safe to work during COVID-19, to potential employees having to help children attend class virtually or care for kids, with many schools shut down.

We've written about supply chain challenges around personal protective equipment, like resin shortages early on in the pandemic and complaints about price gouging.

But there are also reports of outright fraud around PPE. 3M, which makes N95 masks and other gear, announced Oct. 5 it's stepping up efforts to fight counterfeiting of its masks, price gouging and other problems around these critical products.

In April, my colleague Frank Esposito wrote about how the St. Paul, Minn.-based company launched efforts to catch companies selling goods that fraudulently claimed to be from 3M, including setting up hotlines around the world.

Now it says those efforts have resulted in seizing 3.5 million counterfeit respirators worldwide, as well as won nine temporary restraining orders and seven preliminary injunctions in court.

The company said it's donated to COVID-19-related charities the proceeds from seven settlements it's reached with counterfeiters.

3M said the effort has resulted in taking down 11,500 fraudulent e-commerce offerings and 235 deceptive domain names. To help identify potential cases of fraud, the company made clear it has not and will not increase prices for its respirators during the pandemic.