I was reading recently that in US manufacturing there are approximately 400,000 unfilled jobs. These are positions in domestic factories and the article was explaining how hard it is to find workers for these roles. I’m grossly paraphrasing, but as we have offshored production and as college has become more popular, factory jobs have been increasingly deprioritized in terms of general career goals. The jobs that have been prioritized widely, I would argue are “knowledge work” jobs. (Something Cal Newport talks a lot about - I’m a fan!) Basically, computer jobs where you sit or stand at a screen, go to meetings and do very little if any physical work other than typing and walking to and from meetings (and constantly moving your feet around, if you’re me).
As I’ve been talking about recently, my paid work is largely in front of a computer, and I have been craving and trying to balance that out with physical work, tasks, and hobbies. I have also heard this same sentiment from many of my peers. Putting all of this together, I wonder if there’s an opportunity to create a new type of job economy where workers divide their time between work in front of a computer and physical work at a local factory or manufacturing hub. This could be in service to one or multiple companies, but it would potentially allow a balance of both worlds: lower intensity time at a computer complemented by a physical shift, moving your body and doing something with your hands. It could be half days or it could be split up in days of the week. Maybe because I’ve become somewhat used to consulting (2 years in), the idea of being paid by 2 different employers for 2 different part time jobs sounds just fine to me. (Putting aside the obvious bear of health care which I won’t get into here.)
I may be naive suggesting this, but the take away from the article I read is that dreams of reshoring manufacturing in the US are very out of touch with the reality of what jobs people want. It’s one thing to say you want to bring manufacturing back to the United States, but if you can’t fill the factories with workers then what good is that anyways? We’re going to need creative solutions that probably haven’t existed before if reshoring is going to be a real possibility.
Food for thought this Wednesday. What do you think?
Cynthia
This really resonates with me and I think about it often. I’ve also been yearning for a job where I can be more mobile. During my early years in the apparel industry, I was on the bottom rung and all of the work I did required me to be on my feet. When I moved into corporate fashion, I was the errand girl, running to the lab to check submits, running to the grading office to drop off a garment. The more I advanced, the more sedentary I became. Then I made a pivot, finishing my virtual sustainable management masters and focusing on sustainable fashion (data and reporting heavy work), three of the most physically unhealthy and sedentary years of my life! Since January, I’ve been working part time for a non-profit while I look for/create my next role. During this time I’ve been doing a lot of landscaping and renovation for my real estate side-hustle and the physical mixed with the mental has been the best balance I’ve had in a long time.
I feel like my career has been a case study to validate what you wrote about. I can’t speak for anyone else but I am more grounded and have better mental and physical health when I can have both things.