Unemployment may still be high because companies aren’t hiring, but one sector is the exception: Firms specializing in high-tech manufacturing are begging for workers because skilled labor simply isn’t there. According to a recent New York Times article, factory owners have been steadily adding jobs since the beginning of the year and would love to hire more, but can’t fill many openings because there’s a mismatch between the kind of skilled workers they need and the applicants out there.

Part of the problem is that young people don’t see manufacturing as a career path. And why should they? U.S. manufacturing has been on the decline since the 1970s. But the ugly reality is that a robust economy can’t be built on service and retail alone. Our staggering trade deficit is evidence that America doesn’t make tangibles anymore — we just buyand sell stuff to each other, and most of that stuff is made in other countries.

The other side of the equation is that in spite of the wonders and ubiquity of technology, not everyone wants to spend 40 or 50 years sitting in a cubicle punching computer keys. Neither of my Depression-kid parents ever finished high school — they were factory workers. Their idea of nirvana was a “nice, clean office job,” and for that you needed an education. The irony is, in those golden post-WWII days, my uneducated parents probably made a better living on the factory floor than most people working today’s nice, clean office jobs.

Back in the day, there were technical schools where kids who weren’t “college material” could learn a trade. Today, when you need a B.A. or B.S. to be considered for a receptionist job, kids who want to go into manufacturing need a college education. Unfortunately, much of the grant money for tech majors has dried up, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.

On the bright side, there are organizations that are working on educating young people on this viable career path — and insurance is helping out.

I recently spoke with Janice Allen, national program director at CNA, about the CNA Foundation’s $15,000 funding of Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs (NBT), a program sponsored by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Assn. International (FMA). NBT centers on a national summer camp program for grammar and high school kids during which they spend 2 weeks at a manufacturing facility, learning about the business, and end up actually making something to take home. The camps, which start in June and run through August, are connected with community colleges in the area, which partner with local manufacturers to host the programs. 

“The idea is to get the kids interested at an early age and consider manufacturing as a vocation,” Allen said. “Even if they don’t go into manufacturing, they will have appreciation of what it means.”

CNA’s involvement is a multiple win for the insurer: because they are the endorsed business insurance carrier for FMA, the sponsorship helps build their relationship with the association, demonstrates commmunity involvement, and assists in developing a pipeline of new employees to keep the manufacturing industry viable. “In an industry where the workforce is aging, and where it’s hard to find replacements, there is no stronger thing we could do to support that,” Allen said.

Given the current deadlock  in Washington on any meaningful job creation and training programs, the CNA/FMA partnership seems to be a workable solution to a very real problem.

With all due respect, I think the researchers at Careercast.com must be, as the Brits say, “having us on.”

That’s the only conclusion I can come to after looking at their much-touted “Best Jobs for 2010” list, just up on their Web site.

Not so much that they rank the job of insurance actuary as No. 1. After all, the rankings are based on a combination of “environment, income, outlook, stress and physical demands.” The fact that actuaries make good money, wear nice suits and sit at a desk would obviously rank the profession higher on the list than, say, anything seen on the “Dirty Jobs” show.

Nor do I take much umbrage over most of the other top 10 jobs, including the predictable computer software designer and analyst, accountant (they’re in demand in all economies) and dental hygenist (although I beg to differ with the “stress” element of that job — when my son was young he once threw up on one).

But guess what: ”Insurance agent” came in at an unenviable No. 103, right between “telephone installer/repairer” and “artist (fine art).” While the job of insurance agent might well include elements of both those jobs, I find it hard to believe that the job outlook for insurance agents is only one step above that of an aspiring paint-flinger. (It’s gotta be the stress level: 63.322 compared with 51.994 for artistes.)

Another position that handed me a laugh was that of “publication editor” (in the immortal words of Bozo the Clown, “Hey, that’s me! Wha-ha-ha-ha!”). Ink-stained wretches actually beat out insurance agents for job viability, coming in at No. 65. And although the fine print did concede that the hiring outlook for editors was “very poor,” this relatively high ranking completely ignores the fact that more U.S. print publications went down the tubes in the last two years than in the history of publishing.

I also had to laugh at other job entries that beat out insurance agents on the list — including “historian” at No. 5 (hey, all you business school students — ditch the MBA and start focusing on the Punic Wars!), “author” at No. 74 (riiiiight…), “janitor” at No. 83 and “bookbinder” at No. 91. Although ballerinas, astronauts, cowboys and pretty-pretty princesses didn’t make the cut, this list suggests that even your wildest kindergarten career fantasy would have been a better choice than what you’re doing now.

Still, you can take some comfort in the fact that you’re not in the career that came in No. 200: “roustabout.” No, not in the circus, but on oil rigs. Careercast.com describes it as a job with good earning potential, but with long hours, dirty and dangerous working conditions, isolation and high stress. Oh, wait…sound familiar?

Last June, AA&B took an in-depth look at insurers and agents who were specializing in “green” insurance coverage. Our sources spoke glowingly of the potential for growth in green construction, especially in the area of retrofitting existing buildings — a topic covered in a current Web exclusive article on the subject.

Supporters maintain that adopting green building methods and materials will create a “green collar” job transformation in the U.S.  The latest figures from the USGBC in a “Green Jobs Study” conducted by Booz Allen suggests that green building will support or create 7.9 million jobs between now and 2013. And in certain areas of the country, it seems to be working. One independent study shows California green jobs grew 36 percent from 1995 to 2008.

But President Obama’s campaign promises to create 5 million new green jobs and put the U.S. in the forefront of renewable energy production have failed to materialize. Ironically, China, which for years has been reviled for its profligate use of nonrenewable energy, is now the world leader in the production of off-grid wind turbine generators, according to a recent article in EcoWorld.com.

According to a recent article in Fast Company magazine, there is terrific potential for green job growth in these areas:

• Farmers
• Foresters
• Solar power installers
• Energy efficient builders
• Wind turbine fabricators
• Conservation biologists
• Green entrepreneurs
• Recyclers
• Sustainability systems developers
• Urban planners

This list is inclusive enough to accommodate all levels of workers, from MBAs to retrained blue-collar people.

Nobody should be cheering green jobs more than the insurance industry. With the manufacturing and construction industries struggling to find a place in the “new normal” economy, a burst of new activity in the green jobs area could pull these and other industries out of the doldrums.

But as the California example indicates, it takes more than hope to build the new green collar middle class American worker. Green is “gold” in California in large part because of state and municipal rules mandating green compliance. Like any fledgling industry, green jobs need some government incentive to get off the ground. As long as it’s cheaper to keep doing things the old way, the green promise will remain just that. In China, the government subsidizes wind power, knowing the young industry won’t be self-sustaining for years, but willing to make the investment. It seems if we really want to dig ourselves out of our current economic malaise, our country would be better served by a government that’s willing to invest in the future instead of propping up relics from the past.

Did you get your flu shot? Are you washing or sanitizing your hands? And more to the point, what’s the absentee level at your office?

Here at the Chicago Summit Business Media office where AA&B is based, we’ve had at least two fairly lengthy employee absences because of some form of flu. Although one case was inconclusive, the other employee is still waiting to get the word from her doctor on whether the illness that kept her out for a week was officially swine flu (which brings up the subject of the H1N1 vaccine shortages, for one thing, but that’s another story).

And while two cases may not sound like much, it seems as if the rest of us are just feeling under the weather to some degree or another — aches and pains, coughing, sneezing, and a general malaise (or maybe it’s just the power of suggestion). Maybe it’s the time of year — daylight savings time, effective last weekend, makes 5 p.m. seem like midnight. Most of us are suffering through not H1N1, but a cold or some less extreme form of the annual annoyance that is the flu (the official line of demarcation between flu and H1N1 is whether or not you get a fever and have stomach issues).

As far as productivity goes, whether you’ve got swine or seasonal flu is a moot point. Sick is sick, and when sick people stay home (as they should), work doesn’t get done. The issue could very well be exacerbated by the fact that many workplaces have been decimated by layoffs over the past year. Add the flu to these shrunken staffs, and companies could be facing a very real production problem.

When the swine flu first raised its ugly head this spring, I spoke with Harry Rhulen, CEO of Firestorm Solutions, which specializes in advising corporations on business continuity, communicable illness and disaster planning. I called Harry today to get an update on what his clients are seeing and to paraphrase Al Jolson at the dawn of talkies, the message was, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Although two of his clients have reported deaths related to H1N1, Rhulen believes things still aren’t as bad as they will be by late November and early December, when cold weather and enclosed spaces create the ideal breeding ground for illness. He predicts that by then, 30 or 40 percent of the nation’s workforce could be home sick — if not from swine flu, then from any other typical winter virus.

By now we’re all familiar with what to do to try and prevent the spread of illness, but what about those employees who already have it? Do you have a formal workplace strategy in place to deal with the absences? Are you allowing employees to work from home if they’re getting over the worst of it, or have to take care of sick family members?

The CDC suggests that businesses take a similar approach to the flu, whether it’s H1N1 or seasonal. Key elements to a plan include:

• Revisiting pandemic plans made during the first swine flu threat this spring
• Allow sick workers to remain home with pay and without fear of losing their jobs
• Develop flexible leave policies so employees can care for sick family members
• Share best practices with other businesses in your community
• Add a widget or button to your Web page so employees can stay informed.

A while back, we conducted a poll on our Web site asking readers if their businesses were doing anything different in the way of company policy to address the possibility of a swine flu outbreak. Most of the few respondents said they weren’t.

Now that the official flu season is here — and things are likely to get worse — I wonder if the answer has changed.

How is your office coping with absenteeism related to seasonal and/or swine flu?

	You don’t have to be the Amazing Criswell to make some predictions about how the workplace will change, given the convergence of Internet technology, younger employees and soaring gas prices. According to some recent prognostication by job placement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., we could be seeing:
The end of business travel. This is a no-brainer, considering rising airfares (not to mention fewer flights, long delays and the fact that airlines treat their customers like terrorist cattle), pressure to become environmentally responsible, and businesses continually squeezing the bottom line. Four-day workweeks. If you live in the burbs and work in the city or vice versa, you’re feeling the pain. Gas is around $4.25 a gallon here in Chicago. With portable technology abundant, merciful employers (or smart ones focused on retaining talent) are already offering staffers the option to work at home periodically. Can the four-day work week standard be far behind? Eliminating corporate headquarters. Real estate values are tanking, and it costs a lot of money to heat and cool that big glass monolith. A feasible alternative could be renting out smaller office spaces that are easier for employees to get to. The death of the cubicle. With more employees telecommuting or on flexible schedules, cube farms might become a thing of the past. And the corporate emphasis on team projects also requires replacing cubicles with common areas and community work spaces.
Has your agency implemented any workplace changes in response to the ability to telecommute and/or the economy?

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