BUFFALO’S PAST IS IN MANUFACTURING; ITS FUTURE COULD BE, TOO

Story originally published February 2024 via Buffalo Business First

Manufacturing is the fifth-largest employment sector in the region with nearly 65,000 jobs. That’s projected to grow 12% in the next decade.

“While it no longer dominates the economy as it did decades ago when up to one in three non-farm jobs were in manufacturing, advanced manufacturing remains a key strength,” said Sharon Entress, associate director of research for the University at Buffalo Regional Institute.

A groundswell of federal support for fast-growing industries such as clean energy and semiconductors, combined with years of private investment in technology and automation, have created a golden opportunity for an industrial city to create a sustainable future in advanced manufacturing.

Yet, a declining workforce could significantly impact the city’s ability to reach its potential in manufacturing.

The industry has grappled with a labor shortage over the last decade, and in the last two years many local manufacturers would agree they don’t have an adequate workforce. They’re proud of the hard workers they employ; there’s just not enough of them.

The region is short about 3,000 manufacturing workers, and local industry leaders expect that number to grow to about 20,000 in the next 10 years. That’s on par with national numbers. More than 2 million unfilled positions could exist across the country by 2030, according to a recent study from the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte.

Part of the problem, Entress said, is that Western New York’s overall workforce is 8% smaller than in 2010. Plus, in manufacturing specifically, the labor force is aging, with more than 30% older than 55.

“We need a robust talent pipeline to fill these jobs as workers retire,” she said. “Yet currently, manufacturing is an industry where older workers outnumber younger workers in Western New York. For every three workers age 55-plus in manufacturing, there are only two workers ages 25-34.”

There are ways, however, that the region can grow an equitable workforce that’s well-positioned for opportunities in advanced manufacturing five years from now.

Offer wrap-around services

First, employers need to attract workers from the region’s unemployed or underemployed population.

“If we can get a couple thousand or 5,000 people back to work who have never been in the workforce before, they’re going to invent new things, they’re going to open businesses, and their kids will have economic opportunity,” said Jon Williams, CEO of Viridi. “If employers in any region of the country want to build a reliable, well-trained and committed workforce, we have to find a way to bring the balance of our population into these businesses.”

As of December, there were 22,800 unemployed residents in the Buffalo metro. According to the U.S. Census Bureau one-year American Community Survey data, the Black or African-American labor force participation rate was only 60.6% in the metro.

“There is a huge economic and social divide in our community,” said Williams, whose company makes battery storage systems at its facility at 1001 E. Delevan Ave. in Buffalo.

Williams has always been passionate about hiring people in the Delevan Avenue neighborhood, but when he started a workforce training program a decade ago, only about one in 30 trainees made it beyond six months of employment, he said.

“It’s not an issue of people not wanting to work and not wanting to be trained for these roles,” he said. “The challenge was everything else – transportation, daycare, health care, legal cases, child support, family members, the loss of food stamps and social support when you get employment. It was everything else, that a big portion of our population tries to deal with every day, that is very difficult to deal with if you’re employed full time.”

That’s why, in 2022, Williams teamed up with Jeffrey Conrad, who has worked in workforce development for 18 years, and Pastor James Giles of Back to Basics Outreach Ministries. They formed the nonprofit GreenForce Training Inc. to provide wrap-around and case management services for employees from underrepresented and disenfranchised populations that need support to transition to full-time work.

Conrad said the services include assistance with getting bus passes or getting a driver’s license back and helping them find a place to live or secure a mortgage.

“We hired people who were homeless,” he said. “You can’t maintain a job if you’re homeless because you’re moving around and couch surfing. If there’s no stability at home, there’s not going to be stability at work.”

The target applicant for GreenForce doesn’t understand the work environment, Conrad said. They may not have industry-specific skills, but they’ve also never managed paid-time-off or invested in a 401(k).

He said many applicants also have low literacy rates and less than a high school education. Many publicly funded workforce training programs are geared towards people who have finished high school and are ready for college, he said.

“We have a whole population of people to fill these jobs,” he said. “You can either make the investment in your people with a program like this that brings in social workers, or you’re just going to cycle through people and spend the money anyways.”

GreenForce has received more than 700 applications, most from the East Side community. Fewer than 15% of applicants have ever used an electronic format to apply for a job, Williams said. Viridi has hired 75 people from the program and its workforce is now about 62% people of color.

Train leadership to be understanding, anti-racist

Giles, who also sits on the board of the Northland Workforce Training Center, said it’s important for employers to understand that when hiring from underserved communities some applicants may come in with limited work experience and complicated life circumstances.

“We have somebody come to work, at least every month, who has a direct connection with someone who’s been violently killed,” Williams said. “It’s a very different social dynamic when you’re trying to deal with that and be productive at work. Those things lead to issues at work that cause employers to fire people. If someone comes in, and they’re mad and a supervisor tells them to pick up the pace, then that could lead to a shouting match and someone being threatened.”

At Viridi, if an incident like that happens, the employee likely has the opportunity to go through GreenForce training again. Viridi’s leadership and supervisors are trained to have patience to help employees adjust in the workplace.

“Maybe they have busted pipes going on in the dilapidated house that the landlord isn’t taking care of,” Giles said. “Or maybe an employee isn’t coming in today because he lost his brother on the city streets. How do you work with him in that moment so that he doesn’t lose his employment? We don’t have a ‘you mess up, you’re out’ policy.”

While many of the GreenForce applicants might not understand all the full-time benefits or PTO, they do understand respect and dignity. Giles said Buffalo manufacturers need to be more vigilant against racism in the workplace. He’s worked with many young people of color who were in good-paying manufacturing jobs but quit due to racism and poor treatment from leadership.

“It’s all the little comments and innuendos that go on,” he said. “People say, ‘nobody wants to work anymore,’ but what’s actually happening is that nobody wants to work under the conditions that are happening at that workplace. They don’t like the way management and supervisors talk to them.”

Stephen Tucker, president and CEO of Northland Workforce Training Center, said companies need to create a workplace culture that provides upward mobility for diverse candidates.

“No one will stay at a company where they’re not valued or respected and there’s no opportunity to advance,” he said. “I believe that a manufacturing workforce that is representative of the community will start to break down some of those silos and stereotypes, so we can change that perception around Buffalo being racist and segregated. I think more diverse leaders would help and creating a culture where everyone feels valued and included would help.”

Tucker said 55% of Northland’s enrolled workers are students of color, and 8% are women. He said that in business and industry in Western New York, people of color represent less than 20% of production workers, and women less than 5%.

“Right now is a great time to be in Buffalo. We are really prioritizing our workforce,” he said. “I think it’s more than just lip service in terms of having an impact on the stereotypes in Buffalo around segregation and racism. I think we really are open to an inclusive workforce, and now it’s up to the stakeholders to make it happen and take advantage of the opportunity.”

Engage with local students, schools

Manufacturers also should help educate the region’s youth that manufacturing jobs are meaningful work with good pay and upward mobility.

Tucker is serving as executive director of a new, 13-member workforce development coalition. He expects the WNY Manufacturing and Tech Workforce Coalition, which was born out of the Build Back Better initiatives, to launch in the next month or two. The coalition will seek to align training at various institutions with employer needs.

The ultimate goal: connecting qualified candidates to open manufacturing and tech positions.

The coalition has reached out to several employers, including Moog, Tesla and M&T Bank, he said.

“We’re looking for employers that are highly-engaged, meaning they’re providing us with input on open positions and helping us identify equipment to train workers and helping to develop curriculum,” Tucker said.

He said the region needs to focus on reframing trade jobs as tech jobs and do more to show younger generations that the industry offers opportunities that “lead to the middle class.”

Jay Baker, CEO of Jamestown Plastics, employs 120 at his plant in Chautauqua County. During his decades serving on the Chautauqua Lake Central school board he learned that young people weren’t exposed to job opportunities in manufacturing.

“The public-school systems have done a horrendous job of exposing youth to the pathways to success in the manufacturing and trades programs,” he said.

That’s why he started a manufacturing club in the district seven years ago. Today, students can participate from sixth through 12th grades and acquire more than 30 college credit hours with Jamestown Community College or the Rochester Institute of Technology.

The district is small, with about 60 graduates in 2022, but Baker said the program is placing about seven graduates annually into the workforce. He’s hired about six students from the program.

He believes that if more districts established similar programs and companies engaged with them, Western New York may be able to fill some of the employment gaps in the industry.

“My point is that New York state graduates hundreds of thousands of kids a year, and if we could get some of them going into manufacturing that would be enormous,” Baker said. “Manufacturers need to become a lot more involved in their local school districts.”