Hartford Business Journal

10 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JULY 13, 2026 Selim Noujaim, president of Noujaim Tool Co. in Waterbury, says finding experienced toolmakers remains one of the company's biggest challenges. HBJ File Photo Skills Mismatch Factory layoffs aren't solving manufacturers' hiring problems range over the past several years, according to state labor data. Even so, many employers report difficulty filling open positions. A recent ranking by MIE Solutions highlights that challenge. The software company analyzed manufacturing job postings relative to the size of each state's manufacturing workforce and ranked Connecticut 11th in the nation among states where employers face the greatest competition for talent. "There's a difference between a Connecticut problem and a problem for Connecticut," said John Bordeaux, the CEO of AdvanceCT, the state's nonprofit business recruitment arm. "We do things and make things in Connecticut that nobody else can do, and so it's incumbent on us to ensure that we're paying a lot of attention to this." Bordeaux said retraining displaced workers can help, but only to a point. Over the long term, Connecticut must continue attracting young people into manufacturing while investing in automation to help fill persistent labor shortages. The push by Electric Boat to hire as many as 8,000 new workers this year is causing particular challenges in eastern Connecticut, where some supply chain companies say the state has focused much of its work- force development efforts on the shipyard itself. "We have really struggled with finding people that are qualified to be plug-and-play in manufacturing," said Chris Jewell, president of Bozrah- based Collins & Jewell Co., a metal fabricator and industrial contractor that supplies Electric Boat. He currently has 90 employees and aims to grow 15% to 20% per year. Jewell said the company is judicious in who it hires: he interviews about 200 candidates per year, and brings on about 10 to 12 people. Collins & Jewell has created a training and development department, developed its own curriculum and paired new hires with experienced employees, something that he notes is very expensive. "It is costly to go through this process because essentially you've got two people doing one person's job in the training process for about 18 months," he said. The challenge is not unique to Connecticut. A recent report by McKinsey & Co. found that advanced manufacturers increasingly must invest significant time before new employees reach full productivity as production processes become more complex and specialized. That makes retaining skilled workers especially important for companies like Collins & Jewell, which competes for talent with Electric Boat and other larger manufacturers that can often offer higher wages. In Waterbury, Noujaim said worker poaching is a persistent problem, even among smaller manufacturers. While Jewell has developed rela- tionships with local high schools and Three Rivers Community College, he said some of his best hires are people who have spent several years in the workforce — even outside manufacturing. "They really know what they want By Harriet Jones hjones@hartfordbusiness.com S elim Noujaim has five open positions for toolmakers at his Waterbury manufacturing plant, Noujaim Tool Co., which makes fixtures, tools and precision parts for the defense, medical and automotive industries. "I would love to find qualified toolmakers and quite honestly, I'm offering a finder's fee for someone who can help us recruit them, because we have work," he said. Not even the recent closure of Stanley Black & Decker's last New Britain factory, with the loss of 300 jobs, could ease Noujaim's workforce issues. "They don't have any qualified people," he said, noting that he also reached out to Bristol-based medical technology manufacturer IDEX Health and Science when that company announced plans in May to close its facility and lay off 73 workers. The experience highlights a growing challenge for Connecticut manufac- turers. Even when experienced factory workers become available through layoffs, their skills often don't match the increasingly specialized needs of companies serving the defense, aero- space and advanced manufacturing sectors. As a result, manufacturers continue to struggle to fill openings despite high-profile plant closures. Nationally, there were 474,000 manufacturing job openings at the end of April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of December 2025, Connecticut had 58,000 job openings overall, according to the latest available BLS data. Training timeline Connecticut's longstanding manu- facturing labor shortage appears to be intensifying as major employers including jet-engine maker Pratt & Whitney, submarine builder Electric Boat and helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky ramp up hiring to support long-term government contracts. Manufacturing employment in Connecticut has remained relatively stable, hovering in the mid-150,000 Note: Each year is as of May. Source: CT Department of Labor, Office of Research MANUFACTURING EMPLOYMENT IN CT 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 156,100 158,500 160,500 162,100 151,000 152,600 156,700 157,700 156,000 150,100 154,800 NO. OF JOBS

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