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Advanced Technology Services (ATS) reports that the baby boomer retirement coupled with a lost generation of factory workers has aggravated the skilled labor shortage for U.S. manufacturers. This finding is the result of a survey commissioned by the company and conducted earlier this year by Neilsen Research that polled 100 senior manufacturing executives representing companies with revenue between $10 million and $1 billion. The survey asked the executives to anticipate the cost of a forecasted loss of 40 percent of their skilled labor force.

Most respondents—81 percent—said they would be affected by the shortage, versus 68 percent in a similar survey conducted three years ago. Further, they calculate that lack of an adequate replacement pool for skilled workers could cost an average of $52.2 million each, compared with an average $50 million reported in the 2005 survey. The cost is higher for companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue, 44 percent of which say the shortage will cost them more than $100 million over the next five years.

ATS offers a white paper that provides guidance on what companies can do to address the shortage. “Workforce Trends: Tools for taking control of today’s skilled labor shortage” illustrates the benefits of taking proactive steps to recruit, train and promote a multi-skilled labor force. Available at , the white paper also enumerates the steps ATS takes to provide manufacturers with skilled workers and to make factories more productive.

ATS is a privately held factory services company that spun off from Caterpillar 20 years ago. Headquartered in Peoria, Illinois, with offices elsewhere in the U.S. as well as in Mexico and the U.K., the company provides managed services of production equipment maintenance, information technology and spare parts repair.

For more information from Advanced Technology Services, visit .