2005 Skills Gap Report

In spring 2005, the National Association of Manufacturers’ Manufacturing Institute/Center for Workforce Success and Deloitte Consulting LLP developed the fourth iteration in a series of surveys designed to learn more about how manufacturers plan their human capital strategies and the barriers they encounter in the process. The results of this survey confirm the skill shortages found in earlier reports. However, the 2005 report goes much beyond earlier findings in detailing the breadth and depth of the skill shortage, the negative impact of the shortages on business operations, and the extraordinary increase in employee performance requirements. The picture that emerges is both more complex and more disturbing than in the past, because it exposes a broadening gap between the availability of skilled workers and the employee performance requirements of modern manufacturing.