Ed Zamborsky, Regional / Technical Sales Manager, Thermaltronics

With hiring remaining a challenge, what can the industry do to help develop skilled workers?

The manufacturing labor shortage could mean 2.1 million unfilled jobs, costing a trillion dollars by 2030.

The shortage has Gartner calling companies to cast wider hiring nets. "Organizations can no longer meet their talent needs through traditional sourcing methods and candidate pools."

Some 22 million 16–64-year-olds in the United States have a disability. The employment rate for this group is around 35 percent, and many of them are ready to work.

InterMotive Vehicle Controls in Auburn, California, struck gold in this talent pool. In 2008, the company looked to outsource PCB assembly and found PRIDE Industries. We're a contract manufacturer with a mission to employ people with disabilities.

"The company's capabilities blew me away," CEO Greg Schafer said. "The people, the processes, and the technology are state of the art. I'd never seen a manufacturing floor where employees were so delighted to be there."

We now manufacture 46 parts for InterMotive—and dozens of others. Companywide, approximately 50 percent of our workers disclose a disability.

An Accenture study found that companies that actively include employees with disabilities achieve 1.6 times more revenue, 2.6x net income, and 2x better margins than peers that don't.

We see it every day.