Humboldt Manufacturing Day Event Celebrates Iowa Manufacturing

On Monday, October 22nd, Hy-Capacity participated in a Manufacturing Day event hosted by the Humboldt Community Schools to raise awareness for Manufacturing Month. The event included presentations by local Humboldt County manufacturing business along with facility tours to give the students a close-up of manufacturing. The goal of Manufacturing Day was to educate the students about manufacturing and how important of a role they play in our local community, along with all of the opportunities that manufacturing businesses can provide. Thank you to Iowa Workforce Development, Humboldt Economic Development, and Humboldt Community Schools for collaboration on this event.

Over 100 high school students visited Hy-Capacity to see what goes on in manufacturing. During this tour, the students realized that they do not need to move far away to find success, but that they can do that right here in Humboldt, Iowa.

Hy-Capacity alone provides jobs that range from production work to accounting to sales and marketing. The possibilities are truly endless for those who are willing to take advantage of them.

Manufacturing Misconceptions

Manufacturing as an industry has a lot of misconceptions that go along with it. Manufacturing is not always the dark, dirty, and dangerous industry that it is often made out to be. The reality is many Manufacturing operations are bright, innovative, and safe environments for people to work in.

Some individuals believe that through the advancement in technology, manufacturing jobs of today will soon be taken over by robots. Robots and other technology have typically replaced the most dangerous or tedious tasks that have given manufacturing a bad reputation. If anything, robotics will help create more jobs while ensuring the safety of production workers.

Manufacturers are desperately searching for individuals with the right skills to fill positions. According to the ISU Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS), Manufacturing accounts for 10.6 percent of Iowa's total employment as of 2016. Every day, there are as many as 10,000 Baby Boomers that retire from the workforce. For manufacturing, this means that skilled workers are leaving at a faster rate than they can be replaced. Today, 80% of the Baby Boomer generation is actively in the workforce. It is predicted that by the year 2022, that will drop significantly to 40%, making way for a new generation of skilled workers.

The Manufacturing Industry is particularly important to the state of Iowa. According to the Iowa Area Development Group, “With 18.4 percent of Iowa’s GDP derived from manufacturing, Iowa ranks eighth in the U.S. for the percentage of GDP derived from manufacturing. More than $10.35 billion worth of manufactured goods are shipped out of the country.”

Future Ready Iowa

The Manufacturing Industry is made up of a majority of what are called middle-skills jobs. These are jobs that require some education beyond high school, but do not require a four-year degree. As reported by Iowa Workforce Development, “middle-skill jobs currently represent about 56% of jobs that make up Iowa’s economy.” According to Future Ready Iowa's projections, by the year 2025, 68% of Iowa jobs will require at least some education beyond high school. Future Ready Iowa is an initiative that was created to “build Iowa’s talent pipeline.” The goal of this initiative is to have 70% of Iowa’s workforce with some sort of post-secondary education by the year 2025.

Cultivating an interest in manufacturing through young students’ participation in events like Manufacturing Day helps to dissolve the negative stigma of the old days of manufacturing. Through progressive initiatives like Future Ready Iowa that help give young Iowans the skills they need to succeed, manufacturing will continue to thrive as an industry.