Mexico: The Answer to America’s Labor Shortage
When the latest monthly jobs growth numbers were released from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the overall response and media coverage focused on the positive big-picture. The US economy added a total of 559,000 jobs (nonfarm payroll) during the month and unemployment declined by 0.3 percentage points to 5.8 percent. In general, it’s a decent month of gains as the economy slowly wins back some of the jobs lost over the past 16-18 months due to the pandemic. Of course, some of those jobs will never come back.
Digging into the different sectors is illuminating as well. At the top of the list stands the hospitality and leisure industry, which added back 292,000 jobs. This shouldn’t be surprising, as restaurants, hotels and foodservice establishments have not yet fully reopened and the sector on the whole has a long way back to full recovery. You don’t have to drive very far to spot a “Help Wanted” sign in a café, restaurant or bar.
What About Manufacturing Jobs?
As an industry, manufacturing added 23,000 jobs in May, or less than a tenth of the jobs added by the hospitality sector. This is on the heels of shedding 32,000 jobs during the month of April. This comes during a time when manufacturers in the US are struggling to find available workers, despite heavy wage increases and a raft of bonuses and other incentives to motivate prospective new hires.
As an industry, manufacturing is facing a people crisis. At our recent webinar (a partnership between Entrada and Wire & Cable Technology magazine), when asked “what keeps them up at night,” access to available labor was the top response among webinar attendees (made up almost entirely of executives from US-based wire harness manufacturers). That concern could apply to any area of the manufacturing industry, at a time when many producers in the US are not running at full capacity, for a variety of reasons: COVID-related shutdowns, employee absences (whether voluntary or involuntary), competition from other industries and more-generous-than-usual unemployment compensation from Uncle Sam.
Manufacturing’s Labor Solution: Mexico and Entrada Group
Mexico offers a viable solution to America’s labor shortage, as the country features abundant available labor, cost-competitive operating costs and proximity to the US market.
Our proven plug-and-play manufacturing platform provides global companies with a trifecta of strengths they couldn’t obtain on their own, short of investing significant time and money. Entrada’s platform offers:
- Fast start-up and ongoing operations, with less cost and risk.
- Cost-competitive labor starting at $2.30/hour fully loaded.
- A proven, nearby location for successful manufacturing operations
Our integrated solution includes company infrastructure, shared services, and our manufacturing campus, giving our clients a shortcut to Mexico’s strengths. Our manufacturing campus is home to more than 5,000 employees and the average age of a worker at our manufacturing campus in Zacatecas is 27 years old.
What could be a better answer than that to a shortage of manufacturing workers?
If you’re interested in learning more, reach out to me for a short call or join our next upcoming monthly webinar.
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