It’s the big day: Manufacturing Day 2014! It’s an important day for manufacturers across the country, as cities and companies prepare to showcase the very best of the industry to share with everyone from local citizens to President Obama! The Prez will be heading to in Princeton, Indiana to celebrate the day and all of our fantastic makers.

In case you haven’t read our earlier posts on the day, Manufacturing Day is a celebration and chance to address common misperceptions about manufacturing, while showing what the industry is, and more importantly, isn’t. You can find a list of all the Manufacturing Day events and tours happening in Nebraska on our blog, with some exclusive tours that only happen on this day each year.

So why does the country need this day to contradict those stereotypes about manufacturing? Well, if you can’t make it to Manufacturing Day to see for yourself, here are a few of the common misconceptions about the industry that continue to hinder the growth of a skilled worker population and in turn, American economic growth. only eleven percent of people believe the manufacturing industry is growing, and more than two-thirds think the problem is a lack of jobs rather than skilled workers to fill the jobs.

If you’re a regular blog reader, it’s almost astonishing how far that popular belief is from being true. As we’ve seen, the hindrance to manufacturing growth is the dearth of skilled workers to fill the hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the United States (in other words, what we call the skills gap). In Nebraska and across America, the manufacturing industry is actually currently growing at the fastest rate it has in the last 3.5 years— this is a response for a strong demand for aircraft, furniture, sheet metals, and other metals as well as manufacturing slowdowns in Europe and China.

Additionally, current studies find that over seventy percent of Americans said they wouldn’t recommend manufacturing as a career for their children. In reality, there are a wide variety of incredibly lucrative career opportunities in manufacturing with great pay and fulfilling work. As the Kennametal Inc. President and CEO Carlos Cardoso explains, “it is the future of America, ripe with opportunities for a new generation of digital-savvy talent.”

So if you can’t make it to a tour with any of Nebraska’s amazing makers, make sure to keep up with us here on the blog to learn more about the truth behind the industry and the opportunities available to truly change the face of the American economy. Questions? Comments? As always, feel free to leave in the section below or send us a tweet at @nebraskamfg!

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