Unemployment may still be high because companies aren't hiring, but one sector is the exception: Firms specializing in high-tech manufacturing are begging for workers because skilled labor simply isn't there. According to a recent New York Times article, factory owners have been steadily adding jobs since the beginning of the year and would love to hire more, but can't fill many openings because there's a mismatch between the kind of skilled workers they need and the applicants out there.

Part of the problem is that young people don't see manufacturing as a career path. And why should they? U.S. manufacturing has been on the decline since the 1970s. But the ugly reality is that a robust economy can't be built on service and retail alone. Our staggering trade deficit is evidence that America doesn't make tangibles anymore — we just buyand sell stuff to each other, and most of that stuff is made in other countries.

The other side of the equation is that in spite of the wonders and ubiquity of technology, not everyone wants to spend 40 or 50 years sitting in a cubicle punching computer keys. Neither of my Depression-kid parents ever finished high school — they were factory workers. Their idea of nirvana was a “nice, clean office job,” and for that you needed an education. The irony is, in those golden post-WWII days, my uneducated parents probably made a better living on the factory floor than most people working today's nice, clean office jobs.

Back in the day, there were technical schools where kids who weren't “college material” could learn a trade. Today, when you need a B.A. or B.S. to be considered for a receptionist job, kids who want to go into manufacturing need a college education. Unfortunately, much of the grant money for tech majors has dried up, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.

On the bright side, there are organizations that are working on educating young people on this viable career path — and insurance is helping out.

I recently spoke with Janice Allen, national program director at CNA, about the CNA Foundation's $15,000 funding of Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs (NBT), a program sponsored by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Assn. International (FMA). NBT centers on a national summer camp program for grammar and high school kids during which they spend 2 weeks at a manufacturing facility, learning about the business, and end up actually making something to take home. The camps, which start in June and run through August, are connected with community colleges in the area, which partner with local manufacturers to host the programs. 

“The idea is to get the kids interested at an early age and consider manufacturing as a vocation,” Allen said. “Even if they don't go into manufacturing, they will have appreciation of what it means.”

CNA's involvement is a multiple win for the insurer: because they are the endorsed business insurance carrier for FMA, the sponsorship helps build their relationship with the association, demonstrates commmunity involvement, and assists in developing a pipeline of new employees to keep the manufacturing industry viable. “In an industry where the workforce is aging, and where it's hard to find replacements, there is no stronger thing we could do to support that,” Allen said.

Given the current deadlock  in Washington on any meaningful job creation and training programs, the CNA/FMA partnership seems to be a workable solution to a very real problem.