SALEM, Ohio -- At 6 a.m. every weekday, a group of sturdy-framed men in steel-toed boots clock into the small factory at Quaker City Castings to build sand molds, pour molten metal and grind iron and steel castings. The jobs are tiring, feature hazards not found at desk jobs and are tough to fill. Once workers are recruited, it can be difficult to get them to stay. This is work politicians lionize, but Americans often don't want.
"A lot of people say they wouldn't work in a place like this because of how hard it is," said Zachary Puchajda, a 25-year old worker who took up metalcasting when a friend who worked at Quaker City introduced him to it.
The work represents the type of gritty, physically demanding labor that President Trump envisions will recast the U.S. as the manufacturing powerhouse it once was. Already, Trump's tariffs have prompted some companies to source parts in the U.S. rather than overseas, a shift that has boosted demand for some small and midsize manufacturers.
America has nearly half a million unfilled manufacturing jobs, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Nearly half of manufacturing companies say their biggest challenge is recruiting and retaining workers, according to a survey this year by the National Association of Manufacturers. Manufacturers usually assign workers to shifts with rigid hours and pay 7.8% lower on average than the private sector as a whole, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1980, manufacturing wages were 3.8% higher. A decline in union representation in the sector hasn't helped.
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Finding workers with the right experience has been a challenge for Quaker City. Most roles require technical skills best learned on the job. Some tasks, like preparing a wood pattern for a mold that satisfies precise blueprint dimensions, require engineering skills. Crews work near molten metal that can reach 3000 degrees Fahrenheit and sometimes haul heavy equipment. To protect themselves from flames and dust, workers wear hard hats, face shields and respirators.
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