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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Engineering

They are talking about this topic: Workforce Trends & Challenges

 

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The quotes below are about this issue:
Many employers face difficulty finding high-quality, entry-level applicants. This is especially true for mechanical and electrical engineering positions.

Employer Quote Region
"Employer 1: I would say our mid-shift is harder to fill than our first shift. It has a 3:00 p.m. start time, which—if you have a family—a lot of people don't want that.
Employer 2: We run around the clock. We have three shifts. And it's definitely more difficult to fill the later shifts."		 Central
"I fully agree with the other employer. You can find candidates, but they don't want to be in Nowhere, Minnesota. I think, bringing kids that have left and gotten educated, gathering them back to our area is the biggest problem." Central
"Our workforce is gradually growing. I think right now we have five or six job openings out there on the sign as you drive by our company. And for some, we haven't gotten any applications. We've had this software engineer posting out there for a year now. For a year." Central
"Software engineers and distributed control, that'd be the primary areas that we need, microcontroller, software developments." Central
"For us, for a mechanical technician or maintenance technician, if they've got some experience but no schooling, we would take a look at them. Or no experience and some schooling. We're not seeing a lot of two-year degrees. That's kind of what we want for those entry-level positions, but we just aren't seeing the applicants with those two-year degrees." Central
"We've decided in the industry that we have to be more involved. [Professor] from [MnSCU college] and I did a presentation for the Willmar school about three weeks ago letting them know these jobs are available and aren't being filled. There are Baby Boomers that have been in this industry—when we talk about the manufacturing side of things—that are retiring and there's no one replacing them. [MnSCU college] is graduating four machinists this year. This area needs 60 of them." Central
"We need maintenance technicians. I'm not sure when the oversupply—as suggested by the data—might be happening. Is that 10 years from now?" Central
"We're finding similar results as the other employers. The difficulty of finding applicants often comes down to location." Central
"But it's specialized in microcontrollers. We get software engineers in, but they don't have the interest in the microcontroller side, they're more on the big system level. Someone that's interested in microcontrollers needs to understand the hardware with the software." Central
"We have both electrical engineers and electrical technicians, mechanical engineers, and mechanical technicians that we're talking about needing here." Central
"I would say that for us, we have run into issues in each of the areas. We've had a difficult time finding software engineers. We've had a difficult time finding electrical engineers. We've had a difficult time finding mechanical engineers. We've had a difficult time finding CNCE programmer people, and welders. We have had some jobs open in our area here for months—many months—that we have not been able to fill. When I see a suggestion of oversupply, I don't agree that there's an oversupply of anything. At least in our area anyway." Central
"A little bit more of a struggle to find entry-level electricals." Metro
"We do enjoy a pretty good candidate pool, but let's say less so for mechanical and less so for electrical. We're finding the same thing—a little bit more of a struggle finding entry-level electricals out there." Metro
"I looked back five years, and what did I see? They needed electrical and mechanical engineers. They needed those other skill sets: tool and die makers, welders. I still see that today, and as I look forward, there is nothing that I can see that tells me if we meet five years from today that it is going to be any different." Metro
"During the course of my work, I had the opportunity to get involved with a lot of manufacturing firms located in the seven-county metro area where about half of Minnesota's manufacturing takes place. Almost every client that I had an opportunity to interact with has expressed some need for some level of skilled worker. To speak very specifically about today's topic, last week I had an opportunity to meet with a relatively newer company, two years old, in a growth mode, and they are in need of electrical engineers. They can't find them, which was interesting because the data—this is 2010 data—but the data was suggesting that there was an oversupply of electrical engineers. Now maybe there is a disconnect in terms of, 'How do we get those that have the need in contact with those that are available to fill the position?' But, I see a lot of need out there for electrical and mechanical engineers, so some of this data was a bit surprising to me. There are also other areas, and I don't want to get off the track, but the simple things like welders. I was at an event where we talked about manufacturing, and in that study as well there seemed to be an oversupply in terms of welding, but yet that is a need that I encounter all the time when I talk to manufacturers. We need mechanical engineers. We need welders. We need tool and die makers. And, in the case last week where the company was after electrical engineers, the comment to me was, 'Well, I've talked to some electrical engineers, but they've never been exposed to anything like three-phase motors or any of those kinds of things coming out of their school.' I don't know how valid that comment is, but it was made. So, there is somewhat of a disconnect, I think." Metro
"Right now, our company has about a hundred positions open. I'd say the majority of them are in the engineering fields and a few administrative, but mostly engineers or technicians." Metro
"We've got a significant presence in the mining industry. And it's pretty cyclical, and it has picked up. So, of course, we're looking for more mining engineers. I think we have seen the potential where we're looking for maybe people with advanced degrees." Metro
"Are graduates taking positions all over the state? In southern Minnesota? Do they want to move away from the Iron Range for a while?" Northeast
"So, in addition to the mechanical and the electrical engineers—we're a unique animal, too, in that we're going back underground after 50 years—so we need mining engineers. Our processing on the back end—the whole hydrobath and autoclave—we really need electrical and metallurgical engineers." Northeast
"They've got so many options now that it's amazing to me, especially the new grads. Talk to them and, well, they like us, but they have three other offers they're considering. And they've got to put the whole package together of what the opportunity is. And you talk about all the fringe benefits. We've got a whole different setting for our value. So, you have to be able to sell it to them. It's just so competitive right now. They may have five or six offers." Northeast
"Well, I've got my demographics here just for Hibbing, and you can probably multiply it by the six mining companies on the Range. In our management area, we've got 36 people that can retire today. And in our hourly group we've got 168 that can retire today. And for our hourly group, we require a two-year degree or the equivalent." Northeast
"There's a lot of opportunity, and that doesn't include the positions that will open up when retirements happen. So, that might be what's making us a little different up here in northern Minnesota versus southern Minnesota is that we have tremendous, tremendous need up here for technical and skilled work." Northeast
"We struggle to find mechanical engineering techs." Northeast
"One of the things in mining, from my experience, is that they would love to have mechanical engineers and other engineers in operations and maintenance positions. This is not just engineers these guys are hiring. These are people that they want to move into operations and production. Although, if available, they would prefer engineers in most cases." Northeast
"Six months ago, we did a little presentation for some high school kids. We did a random survey of openings, and I think around that time we had 40 or 50 openings in northern Minnesota between area companies. That's a shortage. It's real. We didn't look at specific disciplines for that data. We just wanted to give the kids a feel for it. So, yeah, there is opportunity in northern Minnesota." Northeast
"We're a supply company. We're not an engineering firm like some of you guys are, so we don't hire as many. But we've hired two engineers over the last two-and-a-half years. In both cases, it took six to eight months to find a qualified person. Our qualifications might be a little bit different. We're looking for communication skills, but we need that technical expertise, too, whether it's mechanical or chemical. We like process people. And we expect to be hiring more in the next 12 to 24 months. I don't see any change except that the [MnSCU] engineering program is free. Hopefully, that'll help fulfill some of our needs." Northeast
"Employer 1: When we had to fill our last opening, we had to run ads two or three times.
Employer 2: We tried that same approach. We also tried word-of-mouth; that's how we ended up doing it.
Employer 3: We tried that, too."		 Northeast
"In our department, we went for a year before we hired our latest, in December." Northeast
"We would disagree with what you said about the demand for chemical engineers waning or growing. Also, when we hired a production engineer, we had a very difficult time." Northeast
"Question: I think what I'm hearing is that you don't agree with the data because there is a shortage of candidates, and that's true across the board?
Employer: Oh, big-time."		 Northeast
"That's across the company, so we've probably hired eight or ten here in the last year. And I'm guessing we'll pick up another six this year, and that's just in Hibbing. It's all disciplines: mechanical, electrical, and civil." Northeast
"The most difficult hiring for us is an electrical engineer. I was down at [non-MnSCU college] yesterday meeting with the engineering department, and they finally got an agreement where they can split the computer and electrical engineering degree into two types of degrees. The electrical engineers are extremely difficult to find. There are a lot of schools that have mechanical programs, but to find the electricals in the numbers that we need is tough. So the [non-MnSCU college] is moving in the right direction." Northeast
"As far as trends, we see an ongoing need to continue to hire electrical and mechanical engineers because of two reasons. We have engineers that are going to be retiring, and also because of growth. If we see growth in our business in the next five years, we're going to have to hire more people. I don't see that changing. It is kind of a tight market. We anticipate a continued need for electrical mechanics." Northwest
"We hire mechanical, electrical, controls, and software engineers. And I thought it was interesting with mechanical maybe being on the decline because we're actually finding the opposite to be true. But, of course, we're looking for experience too, and that's what hurts. That is hard." Northwest
"For us, electrical engineers are hard to find, and maybe it's just knowing where to go and how to get them to come to our area." Northwest
"At our company—we do the software and the higher level mechanical and electrical—we're definitely feeling the pinch with finding those individuals." Northwest
"I talk to a lot of recruiters, too, and they're having a hard time finding electrical engineers, so I don't know." Northwest
"I put that down to the spouse thing, too. If you find a qualified candidate from outside of the area, what does that spouse have? If they're not familiar with a rural community, and they're coming from a larger metropolitan area, is it something that they're ready for? Because it is a different culture and a different feel. If they don't have specific ties to the area, will they stick around after we've made that investment?" Northwest
"I think that this year, it's a little tougher to find people. I mean, I would say we're still finding people, but maybe when they come in, they've got another offer when we're going to talk to them. More people seem to have more offers." Southwest
"Some of them have offers before they even get out of school." Southwest