Across all sectors of the manufacturing industry, many businesses are struggling to retain their workforce and find qualified individuals to fill their empty labor slots. The difficulty of employee retention circulates from the aftermath of COVID-19, as business owners are fighting to find their way back to their pre-COVID state.

While employment opportunities and labor turnover rates are at a record high, businesses struggle to find individuals that are well-suited for their positions due to the lack of wage growth. For businesses to decrease their turnover rates and find reliable individuals to fill their open positions, they must take a different approach to their hiring process and workforce retention.

The manufacturing industry has begun to view its hiring practices from a different perspective, as they have taken the biggest hit in terms of workforce retention. The pandemic has thrown the entire industry for a loop; from scrambling manufacturers’ business operations and supply chains to exacerbating a shortage of skilled workers, it has been difficult for businesses to recover. For manufacturers to attract qualified individuals to fill their workforce, they must implement incentives within their labor practices to ensure employee retention, such as increasing wages and dignifying managerial practices.

Along with workforce shortages, many companies have been forced to cut back on their production costs due to a pandemic-triggered inflation spike. While the majority of these economic issues are projected to resolve once the economy has returned to its recovered state, it is uncertain which long-lasting effects will remain and how manufacturers’ will face these obstacles in the future.