As science and technology industries develop, nowadays these industries has become career goals for many young people. Undeniably, the salaries and bonuses of the technology industries cannot be compared by the traditional industries; although technology related industries are high tension and require huge amount of time and effort, some even require cleanroom suits, the high incomes and rewards still attract both junior and senior staffs to join the workplace.

The development of CNC lathe applications so far has covered all types of transportation, including aircrafts, vehicles, ships, and even submarines; besides, many daily products and manufactured components rely on CNC lathe to process. Despite the wide applications of CNC lathe industry, its technician shortage has become a global issue, impacting the industry’s future. Due to industry competition and decrease in both buyer’s market and profits, most employers prefer to hire technicians with experience, and are unwilling to train new personnel. These employers consider training new technicians as an inefficient process which consumes too much time and efforts; it is difficult to recruit ideal employees who are willing to devote into learning the skills and still remain loyal to the company after completing the training. Hiring experienced technicians seems to be a relatively safer and more effective option for the employers, though also leads to lack of new blood in the industry.

Most technicians choose to leave the company after completing the training and learning essential industrial skills, because most of their original companies do not seem to have the opportunities for substantial salary increase, and changing company appears to be a way to better the wage. As a result, employers recruit new personnel as operating staffs instead of teaching them technical skills and training them to become technicians. Such vicious cycle eventually leads to shortage of professional technicians in the industry.

Job-hopping might be a way of changing payroll, on the other hand it is also possible that the new workplace is not ideal or even more challenging: new environment, new colleagues, maybe different types of equipment, different processing and quality requirements… etc. Therefore the decision of changing workplace mostly happens only when technicians cannot stand the salary and promotion opportunities at their original company.

Perhaps the above observations are the reasons for the current CNC lathe technician shortage.

Extended reading：How to Train CNC Lathe Technicians
Extended reading：CNC Lathe Processing Industry situation