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NEW VIDEO – Interview with Jay Hardy
SPOTLIGHT ON MANUFACTURING
Tomorrow is Manufacturing Day 2022—the year’s largest day of action for modern manufacturing. But it doesn’t stop there: MFG Day launches a month full of manufacturing events, for more connection and participation across the industry and country.
Held annually on the first Friday in October since it’s launch in 2012, it reveals to students, parents, and the public what modern manufacturing is all about. The fourth industrial revolution is rapidly changing our world. New advanced manufacturing technologies bring about whole new careers, requiring a skilled workforce interested in pursuing them. From bioengineers to data analysts to robotics technicians, and all of the operations in between, there is a place for everyone in manufacturing! We are therefore delighted to feature a high-tech manufacturer in the first of our Industry Spotlight videos. Our Spotlight on Manufacturing interview is with Jay Hardy, President, Hardy Diagnostics, based in Santa Maria, CA.
Did you know that there were 834,000 manufacturing job openings in July 2022, including some in our local Santa Maria-Santa Barbara Metropolitan Statistical Area or MSA, which employed over 12,000 people in 2021? Hear how one of our region’s top manufacturers views hiring and sources for applicants. Visit our EconAlliance Video Library for the interview.
Some say long-held negative misperceptions about manufacturing, as well as lack of awareness of manufacturing’s high-tech transformation and career opportunities, account for challenges in attracting workers.
As anyone who has visited a manufacturing plant in the past 20 years, including those facilities in our area, could attest, today’s manufacturing plants are clean, bright, high-tech and buzzing with activity at every level of the skills continuum. Those who enjoy working with their hands can find great jobs and careers in manufacturing, but so also can designers, engineers, information technology workers, and marketing, HR and management professionals.
To understand how a manufacturing enterprise is uniquely positioned to bring outside revenues into its region (as opposed to circulating disposable income from within a region), see inside perspectives shared by Hardy in his interview.
At EconAlliance, we aim to provide insight into manufacturing (among other industries) within our region. Our goal is to facilitate a local commitment to support local manufacturers by building awareness, streamlining any challenging local regulations, and sharing information about manufacturing’s many exciting career opportunities.