Reporter’s Notebook

Here’s what I want to know: If manufacturing jobs pay an average of $20 per hour, and if manufacturing is so essential to contemporary life, why are fewer young workers choosing the industry?

I learned this from a panel of industry experts at the Columbia River Economic Development Council’s quarterly luncheon last week. I have to admit, when I picture the manufacturing world, I usually picture the 1950s. But that’s not accurate because my car, computer, cell phone and MP3 player are all at my disposal because of a manufacturing workforce.

As the panel members put it, manufacturing today is a high-tech industry. But it might be that parents and schools just aren’t encouraging youth to consider it as a career path.

I hail from Lewiston, Idaho, where the Potlatch paper mill is almost an economic core. I don’t recall ever being excited to hear that a friend took a job at the mill. But if that friend was making a solid wage and could put engineering and analytical skills to good use, why not encourage it?

It seems people think a “good job” in this day and age has to be an office job. I write that from a gray cubicle, of course. But I wonder how limiting that idea is to someone entering the workforce. I can think of plenty of skilled, brilliant people who would do just about anything to avoid an office job.

But how many of them know of the opportunities manufacturing offers?

-Charity Thompson can be reached at cthompson@vbjusa.com