8 S T U F F • N e w H a m p s h i r e , 2 0 1 7
The current manufacturing
workforce is aging out, and the
industry is pushing for younger
workers with high pay and
clean environments
Making way
for the next
generation
BY MELANIE PLENDA
B
renda Cardenas came to America with
her parents when she was just 2 years old.
"Since I was little I've liked to make
stuff, whether it was drawing or paint-
ing," Cardenas, 23, says. "Whenever we
had toys we could use to build something, I would
build it and then ignore it. I didn't care after it was
built. And I still do that."
When she started at Nashua High School, she was
on the tour that all students take at the start of their
high school careers.
"And they took us to the engineering side of the
school where they show you a bunch of cool stuff,
and I saw on the computer a 3D model," she recalls,
"and I said, 'I want to do that. How do I do that?
Who do I talk to to do that?'"
Today, Cardenas, who is studying mechanical
FA C T O I D
$68,328
Average annual pay
for a New Hampshire
manufacturing
worker in 2016
$120,300
Annual salary for
New Hampshire
industrial production
managers, the
highest-paying
non-engineering
manufacturing job in
the state
P H O T O S / J E S S I C A A R N O L D
