Expert: More, Higher

Paying Manufacturing Jobs

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.ALLOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA

There are more manufacturing jobs available in Otsego County and they pay well, according to Christian Harris, Binghamton, the state Labor Department’s labor market analyst for Otsego County.

“Right now there are 42 open jobs for supervisors, operations workers and industrial engineers,” he told THE JOB SCENE. “These are jobs maintaining the production line or working on the process of the
production, and, on average, make $82,000 a year.”

With increased automation and an older workforce looking at retirement, the time is right for the next generation to be looking at manufacturing as a career, Harris said.

“There’s this perception that the production line jobs are going away,” he said. “But there are many of those higher-level job titles, which require advances in skills, that are opening up.”

According to Harris, there are 200 jobs in the county, a .8 percent increase from December 2018 to December 2019.

“We’ve had some good years of stability, we’re still hearing from manufacturers that they have a need for employment. They have customer orders coming through the door, but they don’t have enough workers to get them back out the door.”

Amphenol in Sidney and Chobani in South Edmeston, Custom Electronics and Astrocom in Oneonta, and Mallinckrodt in Hobart are looking to increase their workforce.

“They’re continuously hiring,” said Harris.

“The job market is going to continue to be plentiful,” added Alan Sessions at CDO Workforce, Oneonta. “We’re facing a huge amount of retirements of skilled workers, and they’re going to need to be replaced.”

And both Harris and Sessions see the growth in manufacturing opportunities as a way to keep young workers in the area. “We are sorely in need,” said Harris.

In addition to manufacturing, there are often job openings in what Harris calls “Eds and Meds” – education and healthcare, as well as office jobs.

“Finance is a big industry,” said Harris. “There is always a need for customer service representatives in that sector.”