The shortage of skilled trade talent is spreading....
-Editor
The skills and talent shortage toolmakers have worried about for years is growing, and it's hitting more than tooling shops. It's also reaching the point that it is affecting the auto industry's production schedule.
"We received a call a couple of years ago from one of the automakers saying, 'We've got a problem in our industry involving talent. In fact, it's at the point where it's affecting [product] launch. We will have to delay and push back launches,'" Jay Baron, president and CEO of the Center for Automotive Research, said at the group's Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City.
Baron recalled that after that call, Ann Arbor, Mich.-based CAR contacted other automakers.
"Every other automaker we called said, 'Yes, they're right. This is a systemwide problem in the industry.'"