As COVID Slows, Manufacturers Fight for Employees, Clear Supply Chains

Jul. 3—With the travel industry recovering from the near-total shutdown wrought by COVID-19 two years ago, Kevin McEvoy has been getting calls to examine more aircraft engine parts.

"People are flying again so they need more parts," said McEvoy, general manager at Innovative Test Solutions, a Schenectady-based company that tests a variety of materials such as aircraft engine components to ensure their reliability and durability.

Business in the aircraft industry is up. But McEvoy is still seeing supply chain delays, especially when it comes to receiving the parts to be tested.

Likewise with Matt Rowe, vice president of operations at Latham Pools.

Demand for pools spiked with the pandemic as people opted for staycations. Demand remains strong and the company is now working on orders for pools to be finished next year. Getting and retaining enough employees is a constant challenge, said Rowe, even with pay starting at $ 20 per hour with benefits and $1,000 sign-on and referral bonuses.

The same is true for other local manufacturers.

"I could hire 15 to 20 people right now," added Glenn Tabolt, CEO of STS Steel in Schenectady.

There's no question that the coronavirus pandemic was a disrupter for the entire economy.

For the Capital Region's manufacturing sector, it amplified many of the challenges businesses faced before.

And now, amid ongoing competition for employees, supply chain snags and inflation, there is renewed urgency for manufacturers to rethink some of their business practices.

Latham Pools, for instance, is looking at getting components from places like Indiana rather than China.

Innovative Test Solutions turned to the used market to find strain gauges, which measure applied force, since new ones were unavailable.

Many of the adjustments are prosaic and technical but they are important, given manufacturing's often-underappreciated role in the Capital Region's economy.

Manufacturing, a broad business category that ranges from computer chipmaking to steel fabrication to the building of aviation parts and power turbines as well as glues, paint, and any number of items we all take for granted, has long been a vital part of the area's economy.

Manufacturers aren't the Capital Region's biggest employers, but they pay a lot and the multiplier effect helps keep the area afloat financially.

According to the state Department of Labor, manufacturers in the greater Capital Region employ about 33,000 people.

That's not as many as those in accommodation/food services, health care/human services or retail, with 37,000, 38,000 and 55,000 people respectively.

But the average manufacturing salary of about $92,000 is far higher than the $27,000 in accommodations and food service, $56,000 in health care/human services, or $38,000 in retail.

Manufacturers in the Capital Region tend to be "Tier 2 or 3" or relatively small firms with fewer than 100 employees, explained Michael Lobsinger, senior vice president at Albany's Center for Economic Growth.

But they are crucial industries — making parts that go in airplanes or buses, sensors used for assembly lines, rebar for buildings and gaskets, sealing and hoses that go in any number of industrial processes.

"Our manufacturers are behind the scenes so you don't see them," said Lobsinger. "We have a lot of those."

Manufacturing's importance wasn't news to the group of manufacturers, as well as development experts and college advisors, who gathered last week for a discussion put on by Innovative Test Solutions at Rivers Casino and Resort's Landing Hotel.

"These problems and challenges have only been exacerbated over the last two years. Our workforce challenges pre-dated the pandemic," remarked Win Thurlow, executive director at MedTech, an association of companies that make medical devices and other products used in health care.

Several of those in attendance spoke of longstanding struggles in recruiting employees. And they renewed calls for local K-12 schools and colleges to help convince students that there are viable, good-paying careers in manufacturing.

Those calls were familiar: the need for more apprenticeships or internships, both in high school and college, and more BOCES-style training for skilled blue-collar jobs.

While there are exceptions, most of those present agreed that convincing a bureaucratic education system to adapt to the needs of the 21st-century economy will be an ongoing battle.

"We're not following the lead of industry," said Roger Woolsey, executive director of Union College's Becker Career Center. "Higher education needs to adapt," he said, adding that his school has created an entrepreneurship program to get students thinking about post-graduate business opportunities.

The pandemic only heightened the employee shortage.

"It was a major event, it just didn't change some of the fundamental problems. In some cases it made it worse," said Ken Pokalsky, vice president of the state Business Council.

For one thing, manufacturing workers tend to be older. Many are at retirement age, and others may have stepped back during the pandemic, even though manufacturing was considered an essential service not subject to government-mandated shut-downs.

Moreover, inflation is increasing the competition for employees at all levels of skill and education.

Fast food restaurants and retailers are increasing their starting pay, making it that much harder for factories to compete for entry-level people.

And inflation won't likely abate any time soon, said Amber Rangel Moody, workforce development director for the Business Council, whose membership includes many manufacturers.

Supply chain delays also will also likely be here for a while, despite moves to bring back more manufacturing to the U.S.

Reopening or starting a plant, perhaps in an abandoned building, or starting anew, is a long process that doesn't happen overnight, noted Pokalsky.

Some manufacturers may need to take a hard look in the mirror regarding pay and employment conditions, said Miriam Dushane, managing partner at Alaant Workforce Solutions, an Albany employee search firm.

If manufacturers are losing people to retail or fast food, they may need to up their salaries, Dushane said.

And while working from home isn't really an option in manufacturing, some may want to offer flexibility in hours, or work shift configurations such as offering four-day workweeks. That flexibility is especially important in attracting younger workers, Dushane said.

"There is a power struggle there," between employers and employees over issues like wages and work conditions, she said.

Moreover, younger workers, often want to know they are working for a company that's environmentally friendly and which values diversity and inclusion, said Rochelle Caruso, associate director at Union College's Becker Center.

There are some ideas, especially for getting students interested in manufacturing careers.

One way is to create team events where students compete to do things like design the best bridge or piece of machinery, said Philip Bruce, director of Career and Professional Development at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

"Make it kind of a puzzle," he said.

And coping with supply chain bugs requires nimbleness. When Latham Pools, which has plants across North America, couldn't find export shipping containers on the West Coast, they had to look on the East Coast, even though it was farther from some customers.

"It's a challenge every day," said Rowe.

[email protected] — 518-454-5758 — @RickKarlinTU

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