Made in America: Number of ‘working-age’ civilians exiting workforce jumps to 35% in past decade

Editor’s note: Each Sunday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Made In America,” a round-up of state and global manufacturing news. 

NUMBER OF ‘WORKING-AGE’ CIVILIANS EXITING WORKFORCE JUMPS TO 35% IN PAST DECADE: The proportion of the civilian working-age population missing from the nation’s labor pool increased from 31.3% in 2004 to 35% in 2014, according to data from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Over that 10-year period, the proportion of people who reported retirement as the main reason they were not working increased from 13.9% to 15.4%. People who are neither working nor looking for work are counted as “not in the labor force,” Labor Department officials said. The proportion of the working-age population reporting school attendance as the main reason for being out of the labor force rose from 5.0% in 2004 to 6.4% in 2014. The percentage who cited illness or disability as the main reason increased from 5.5% to 6.5% over that same period. The proportion citing home responsibilities declined from 6.0% in 2004 to 5.4% in 2014.

NEW LEADERSHIP TRAINING CLASS FOR WOMEN IN MANUFACTURING TO START IN SPRING: Women in Manufacturing (WiM) and Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management recently announced creation of a Leadership Lab for Women in Manufacturing, which will provide executive education and training to WiM members in mid- to high-level management roles in manufacturing careers. Scheduled to launch this spring, the Leadership Lab for Women in Manufacturing program consists of three sessions over eight days on topics including Women in Manufacturing: Bias Barriers and Opportunities; High-impact Leadership for Women in Manufacturing; and Skills and Strategies for Leading the Way Forward in Manufacturing.

DRONES, DRIVERLESS TRACTORS TO DRIVE GROWTH IN AGRI ROBOT MARKET OVER NEXT DECADE: The demand for agricultural robots is being driven by the global trends of population growth, increasing strain on the food supply, availability of farm labor, the cost of farm workers, shrinking farmlands, climate change, the growth of indoor farming, and the automation of the agriculture industry. According to a recent report from Tractica, the applications for agricultural robots will be diverse and will include driverless tractors, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), materials management, field crops and forest management, soil management, dairy management, and animal management.

The market intelligence firm forecasts that the worldwide market for agricultural robots will increase from $3.0 billion in 2015 to $73.9 billion in 2024. Among the types of robots used for agricultural purposes, driverless tractors will generate the lion’s share of revenue ($30.7 billion by 2024) while agricultural drones will be most prevalent in terms of unit shipments (411,000 by 2024).