1) employers are posting openings but are not hiring - too risky now
2)When kids don’t play in their basements with handtool, only push a joy stick, they don’t have manufacturing skills
3) attitude - people want to clock in and do nothing tht requires responsibility and get paid good wages
My husband told me about how his first employer used to screen out those who were no good for them - when they brought in new apprentices they would put them in shipping and have them do nothing but sorting tools and parts for at least a week. If you put up with that (showed a good work ethic - good aptitude req’d to even get in the door first) then you would probably be worth the time and money it took to put you through school and train you. MANY dropped out within that first week as they just could not see through the ‘test’ and would get way too annoyed (also not a good trait for a machinist to not be able to put up with at least some repetition). As a result the company didn’t end up wasting money on people that wouldn’t be willing to actually work. [There were a few other things that that little test was able to tell the supervisors and managers as well, but usually the ones that would have been a problem quit of their own accord. DH says that there were actually very few who dropped out of the program after that point - almost all ended up going through and becoming journeymen machinists. Back then though - the ‘old timers’ were around to impress upon them how lucky they were to be getting the education as well...]
Nowadays, I don’t know if ANY kids starting out would put up with that - even with the good pay. It seems they aren’t willing to put in any effort at all in many cases. And to do real actual work??? Like you said, it’s not at all like it used to be. I see it all over - not just in manufacturing, that’s for sure.