Current business trends in the manufacturing sector are not just reshaping the future. They are changing the nature of work today. Consider the squeeze on production timelines, rising quality expectations, innovation through AI and automation, safety and compliance, and geographic movement.
Each of these trends accompanies fundamental shifts in the talent landscape. New skills, talent shortages, and the demand for workers across a wide array of manufacturing processes have a profound impact on the leaders responsible for work and the workforce.
- Operations managers know that their ability to deliver on-time, error-free results requires constant management of multiple processes and easy access to workers.
- Procurement leaders face cost, quality, and timing issues as they determine the best path to the extended workforce.
- Talent acquisition teams must secure needed skills for evolving jobs by tapping into a strained labor supply for permanent hiring.
Based on our work with manufacturing clients around the world, we have found that workforce agility is critical to overcoming each of these challenges facing workforce decision-makers today.
Expert view:
Making skills-based hiring work.
“By prioritizing capabilities over credentials and partnering with knowledgeable hiring partners, organizations can build stronger, more adaptable teams to meet the demands of the future.”
Gary Norris
Vice President, Client Services, KellyOCG®
Workers require new skills and continuous learning aptitude.
Skilled trades, AI and related technology expertise, management, and operations roles all have a learning curve that even experienced workers must navigate. That’s because work itself constantly evolves. Hiring and extended workforce strategies now look at work and required skills as a moving target, and strategies must focus on staying ahead of new advances.
- In 2026, U.S. manufacturers spent about $32 billion on employee training, a 22% increase from 2019, reflecting sustained pressure to upskill and reskill as roles change.
- In another 2026 survey, 90% of manufacturing leaders stated they believe digital transformation is essential to remain competitive and 40% say their workforce experienced some level of reskilling over the past year.
Global talent shortages are the norm.
Many companies find that in certain critical roles, even ones where large talent pools exist, the demand is far higher than the supply. Whether recruiting for high-volume, lower-skilled labor for 1,000 positions, or specialized engineers for a small number of vacancies, the supply-and-demand imbalance can still be a factor.
- In 2026, 80% of manufacturers in a global survey cited skilled labor shortages as their biggest challenge, and 71% say those shortages are already impacting operations today.
- U.S. manufacturers faced around 4 million unfilled positions as they entered 2026. Over the next decade, studies predict a 30% skilled labor gap.
- Demographics create talent scarcity: For every five people who retire from skilled trades in the U.S., two enter the market.
Workforce management is a drain in core and noncore processes.
Managing operations is difficult and complex. When skilled people are hard to source and retain for core manufacturing processes, any effort spent managing facilities, equipment, IT services, or other supporting processes draws focus away from primary production. The challenge is acute.
- Manufacturing turnover reached a median of roughly 28% in 2025, with frontline production roles churning at 30 – 38% — turning recruiting and onboarding into a constant, resource-draining cycle.
Our perspective: Agility makes the difference.
Widely varying business challenges mean internal procurement, HR, talent acquisition, and operations often lack the bandwidth to keep up. As a workforce solutions provider, our value to clients continues to evolve. Today, just as important as filling roles and managing an external workforce for clients, we pivot to new demands and evolve to meet shifting workforce targets and challenges.
Access to every talent type, source, and work model. Our experience with clients includes situations that require managed service provider (MSP) solutions for tapping into the extended workforce, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) for permanent hire, and business process outsourcing (BPO) to take responsibility for noncore operations. For total talent approaches, our integrated talent solutions span permanent and contingent hire boundaries and give companies access to the right person, for the right cost, every time.Expertise and consulting.
Consulting capabilities are essential, whether aligning the employer brand to the targeted workers, training hiring managers, or strategic planning. Utilizing the extended workforce also creates needs for establishing bill rates, assessing technology, implementing a VMS, and overall workforce planning. Knowledge of industry influences and experience addressing them make a difference, and our clients depend on this expertise from our partnership. Technology/human balance.
Bringing automation to high-volume recruiting processes is just as important as bringing deep expertise and human touch to hard-to-find technical talent. The concept of balancing tech and touch is not new. We can apply that balance on a detailed case-by-case basis, with one role managed by specialized recruiters while another vacancy is addressed with tech-enabled recruiting for speed and efficiency.
Data, visibility, and intelligence.
Labor market intelligence, talent mapping, wage benchmarking, and skills forecasting help organizations anticipate workforce needs before they become business constraints. A provider’s workforce data ecosystem determines the quality of intelligence on all these fronts. Our Kelly® technology ecosystem easily integrates internal and external workforce data sources. AI-driven innovations allow us to pinpoint talent, identify trends, diagnose issues, and forecast needs.
Case in point:
Reducing business continuity risks.
Strategic partnerships can reduce business continuity risk. During a staffing transition, one energy manufacturer preserved expertise and team cohesion by bringing on 30 new employees through business process outsourcing (BPO) to support $3 billion in annual project revenue and $400 million in logistics spend.
Every option is on the table.
Permanent employees, contingent workers, independent contractors, service providers, and BPO solutions all play a part in a total workforce strategy. Often, the supply of available talent spans a mix of these sources.
Expect a workforce strategy and solutions partner to bring every option to the challenges you face. This makes the difference between solving issues with only a few tools at hand or assembling the right mix to achieve the greatest impact.
Expert view:
Decision intelligence starts at the entry point.
Worker requisition intake is “an operational bottleneck that quietly weakens everything downstream. Once you recognize the problem, you can fix it with the right technology and process adjustments.”
VP, Digital Strategy and AI, KellyOCG
