I get questioned a lot about the recruiting activity in the Injection Molding business. Makes sense. SearchAmerica has been recruiting for injection molders for 16 years and I get kind of a “birds eye” view of the recruiting trends in the market.
Overall, employment numbers are way down in the U.S.. Many of our clients expect that since the overall job market is down, they should have an easy time finding employees with injection molding talent. Not true. Overall numbers don’t necessarily trickle down to a specific industry.
Some events are converging right now, increasing the demand in the U.S. for skilled Injection Molding professionals.
When the economy started trending down in 2007, many people got out of Injection Molding industry. Baby boomers are now starting to get out of the workforce. Fewer qualified workers are available. China has seen huge inflation in the cost of labor in the past few years (~14%). Cost of labor in the U.S. has been relatively flat (so far). This increases production costs in China relative to costs in the U.S.. Fuel costs are way up this year, hurting molders that have to ship product long distances, again increasing the cost of purchasing from China. Custom molders have been realigning their businesses, focusing more on high growth markets like food packaging and medical products.
SearchAmerica has been extremely busy this year recruiting Injection Molding professionals for our clients. As of June, we had completed more searches for Injection Molding professionals than we did in all of 2010. Hopefully this “bad” market will continue for Injection Molders.
Steve Jarvis
President, SearchAmerica, Inc.
(406) 363-2068
www.searchamerica.net