Talent

What Jobs are You Having the Most Difficulty Filling?

March 8, 2016

Here are the most hard-to-fill positions among respondents of our 2016 IndustryWeek Manufacturing Salary Survey.

The editorial staff at IndustryWeek hears the anecdotal refrain of “we need more maintenance technicians/CNC operators/machinists,” but when we polled our readers, we found we weren’t hearing the whole story about job shortages.

Here are the most hard-to-fill positions among those surveyed (# of respondents in parentheses).

Engineer with four-year-degree (120+ -various types)

Industrial Maintenance (51)

Quality specialists (35-various types mentioned)

Sales (32)

CNC Operator/Machinist (29)

Welder (29)

Toolmaker (20)

Manufacturing engineer (19)

Production workers (17)

Production managers (13)

About the Author

Laura Putre | Senior Editor, IndustryWeek

As senior editor, Laura Putre works with IndustryWeek's editorial contributors and reports on leadership and the automotive industry as they relate to manufacturing. She joined IndustryWeek in 2015 as a staff writer covering workforce issues.

Prior to IndustryWeek, Laura reported on the healthcare industry and covered local news. She was the editor of the Chicago Journal and a staff writer for Cleveland Scene. Her national bylines include The Guardian, Slate, Pacific-Standard and The Root.

Laura was a National Press Foundation fellow in 2022.

Got a story idea? Reach out to Laura at [email protected]