SEATTLE - Washington State's unemployment rate officially ticked up today, to 9.3 percent. Manufacturing wasn't the problem - it added 1600 jobs in July. In fact, the state's economy added 5700 jobs in retail, transportation, warehousing and utilities, but lost thousands of service, information and government jobs.
But the Northwest is a big manufacturing area, and Boeing is at the top of that list. It's adding jobs as well as over 600 companies that supply a wide variety of parts locally.
Take the workforce at Machinists' Incorporated. They make just about everything, from airplane parts for Boeing and Airbus, to torpedo tubes for the U.S. Navy to drive shafts for ships. Work comes in from around the world. It's specialized stuff. And it's much broader than just parts for aerospace.
There's plenty of gray hair here, super skilled, senior workers with decades of experience.
But as they retire, the company is having major problems finding younger workers with the skills needed to take over. And that'sthe rub.
"I've done production, retail, fast food management," said Spencer Fish. He's one of their newest hires, on the job for a little over a month.
The company saw enough promise in Spencer Fish that it decided to train him. He was unemployed for a year. Here he sees a career path with growth potential.
"There are jobs. And I myself was underqualified for this one, but I was very blessed with the opportunity learn on the job and develop," said Fish.
When you walk around this place, it's hard to believe there's an economic slow down outside. It's very, very busy.
The Seattle-King County Work force development council says there are 19,000 open jobs in the Seattle area right now. But few of the 90,000 people currently unemployed have the skills to get into these kinds of jobs. Machining work being just one category.
"There's a skill set were looking for here, that's based on true machinists capability. Also, good mathematical skills, and assembly background," said company executive Jeff Tomson.
The 150 employee company still qualifies as a small business. It hired 19 new people in the last few months. it continues to seek applications for skilled machinists, but does not have openings at the moment.
This company expects to continue hiring. as the global economy shifts, because more specialized work like this is actually comes back to the U.S. said Tomson.
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