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26 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JANUARY 8, 2024 INDUSTRY OUTLOOK | MANUFACTURING Selim G. Noujaim is the executive vice president of Waterbury-based Noujaim Tool Co. HBJ PHOTO | SKYLER FRAZER For manufacturers, workforce, technology and supply chain resilience are focus areas in 2024 By Skyler Frazer sfrazer@hartfordbusiness.com T he U.S. is expected to have 2.1 million unfilled manufac- turing jobs by 2030, according to a recent analysis by consulting and accounting firm Deloitte. To no one's surprise, work- force development will continue to be a major focus area in 2024 for Connecticut manufacturers, which reported about 9,000 job openings in September, according to the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. Supply chain management and developing and leveraging new technologies, including artificial intelligence, will also be focus areas in the year ahead. Here are some manufacturing industry trends to watch in 2024. Developing a workforce pipeline Selim G. Noujaim, executive vice president of Waterbury-based Noujaim Tool Co., said workers were in high demand in 2023, forcing compa- nies to poach talent from each other. As a result, companies have had to increase wages. Noujaim said his company, which makes fixtures, tools and preci- sion parts for defense, medical and automotive industries, had a particularly challenging time finding precision toolmakers. The labor shortage began before the COVID-19 pandemic, following years of little or no population growth in the state, said Chris DiPentima, president and CEO of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. That has changed in the past two years, with Connecticut experiencing a net increase of 57,000 residents in 2022, according to U.S. Census data. Increasing the state's population, both by recruiting out-of-staters and encouraging recent high school and college graduates to stay, will be a point of emphasis in 2024, DiPen- tima said, and initiatives focused on housing development, tax reduc- tions and affordability can help with those efforts. "We have a huge workforce development system in Connecticut, and we have the demand on the other side of the system, but we just don't have the bodies or the people going into it," DiPentima said. "The focus this (legislative) session will certainly be around attracting people to Connecticut and keeping people in Connecticut, and a lot of that is about affordability." Career training programs at high schools, vocational schools and colleges remain key hiring avenues, DiPentima said, but manufacturers will need to seek out alternatives. Individuals who were formerly incarcerated, for example, are an often-untapped employment option. Paul Lavoie, Connecticut's chief manufacturing officer, said workforce engagement and career opportunity-related collaboration between the private sector and high schools, trade schools and universi- ties will continue to be a point of emphasis for the state. Automation, AI and new technology New technology can also be used to mitigate some worker shortages, industry experts said. Lavoie said industrial automation is something he expects to see more companies adopt in 2024. "We are not going to hire our way out of our workforce shortages — there are not enough people. We need to invest in industrial auto- mation and develop programs that accelerate the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies in the manufac- turing sector," Lavoie said. DiPentima said companies such as Milford-based Athletic Brewing Paul S. Lavoie Chris DiPentima