Help Wanted! Our 2017 Industry Hiring Survey

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Answers ranged from “no pool of experienced operators” to “finding seasoned engineers” to “finding the right people that fit.” It certainly sounds like there is a real shortage of qualified people to help our industry expand.

In that same group of answers, under “Cost,” we lumped “government regulations” (certainly a burdensome cost) as well as “financing” and “realistic wage expectations.” Under “Career-minded,” we lumped “people that actually want to work” and “finding reliable people.”

Question 5 shows us that companies use multiple methods for recruiting new employees—no surprise there, especially considering the apparent difficulty in finding qualified people.

More PCB fabricators responded than any other business type (Question 6), with the other industry segments pretty evenly distributed.

In Question 7 we learn that the bulk of respondents were from North America and Europe—two regions where the electronics industry has suffered in past years. Couple that with the fact that most hiring will take place in the first half of the year and it appears there is a very positive outlook for anyone working in PCB fabrication with ample opportunity for experienced people. But expansion of companies and hence our industry could be hampered by a real shortage of those same people.

The real unanswered question is “What are we going to do about this shortage?” and “How?”

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