(York, Pa.) – The latest annual Wage & Salary Survey just released by the Manufacturers’ Association clearly highlights the continued need of the region’s manufacturing employers to find skilled workers to fill key roles in their organizations. Currently 92% of manufacturers are facing that challenge. In addition, helping make available future careers for new job candidates is that, of the 80 manufacturers surveyed, nearly one-fourth (25%) now have a workforce which will be at retirement age in the next five years.
And the pace of successfully filling openings is slowing ─ more than 60% of respondents note it is taking longer to fill job openings, with 42% of manufacturers now finding it takes longer than three months ─ an increase from 2018’s Survey.
Other points of significance in this year’s Survey include the following:
- Manufacturers said they expect to increase employment by 677 over the next 12 months
- 51% of manufacturers are hiring over the next 12 months, while 1% are reducing
- Premiums paid for 2nd and 3rd shift work have increased over 2018
- The number of companies not offering incentive compensation plans has decreased steadily
Trending upward in-line with national surveys, an interesting result of this regional Wage & Salary Survey is that 29% agree with raising the Minimum Wage, while 18% disagree.
Each year, both member and non-member companies from throughout the region contribute their compensation data for the creation of the Survey, which serves as a helpful benchmarking tool for management and HR personnel – especially at a time of increased demand for job candidates and high employment.
In constructing the Survey, wage data is included for direct labor, salary exempt and non-exempt positions in several grades, and is the only known collection of industrial compensation data of its kind gathered from across just southcentral PA. Survey data allows individual companies to determine where they stand relative to the marketplace in terms of wage and salary compensation and helps them gauge where competitive peers may be in retaining their skilled talent.
According to Todd Willman, marketing and membership manager, “Many companies in our ten-county region rely on our popular Wage & Salary Survey especially when conducting internal performance reviews or promotions, so that they can remain competitive is what is currently seen as a very tight job market for employers.”
Those interested in obtaining a copy of the 2019 Wage & Salary Survey can contact the Association by email at office@mascpa.org, or by calling (717) 843-3891.