Where Have All of the Good Manufacturing Jobs Gone?

Apparently, to Northern Kentucky.

Manufacturing has long been one of the region's economic strengths, but business leaders are increasingly seeing manufacturing jobs that demand high-tech skills going unfilled.

There are already at least 600 manufacturing jobs that are unfilled because of a lack of skilled applicants, according to Gateway Community and Technical College, the Northern Kentucky-based business and trade school.

The school bases that figure on a just-completed survey of the top 20 advanced manufacturing companies in the area. Those 20 companies alone reported 380 unfilled jobs, it said.

In addition, manufacturers will need to replace more than 350 workers a year over the next decade as older, highly skilled employees retire, the survey found. Another 255 per year would be needed to replace those lost from normal turnover.

So the jobs are there, but the skills aren't. Interesting.