My brother works for a company that builds large boats and ships...ferries etc. Recently his company let go of all the unskilled workers (younger ones not learning a craft) and kept all the older workers. What will they do without the older guys? My brother is now 57 years old.
The situation in US Mfg is becoming very dire relative to an expected bulge of retirements in the next 5 years that will include a lot of the skilled/knowledge employees and managers. Predictions are varied but there will a shortfall of millions of employees of all types needed in manufacturing. I blame the failed ‘everybody must have a college degree’, the pig ignorant state and federal government and US business & business orgs which has been unable to stand up and be heard!
This organization, NTMA, the National Tooling and Machining Association list of small cap precision machining/metalworking companies...http://www.ntma.org/members/directory/.