SIOR Report, Spring 2018
Recently, in a survey of SIOR (Society of Industrial and Office Realtors) members, they named three major impacts on manufacturing in 2018. A majority of responders said labor was going to be the most important issue in the coming months. It’s no longer just location, location, location.
Here’s the problem. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently 400,000 open manufacturing positions across the country. This is at a time when many counties and cities across the country, including the Midwest, have very low unemployment numbers, which makes it even harder to fill those jobs.
Labor is a critical issue in the industrial sector. It’s going to affect where companies locate, because when a company is looking at potential sites to relocate or open a new plant, they need to know that the positions can be filled by skilled workers.