NJ Lacks Qualified Workers For Manufacturing Jobs [AUDIO]

New Jersey's manufacturing sector is slowly starting to grow, but there's a new obstacle, finding qualified workers who can do the job.

"There is a real problem in recruiting people to work in the high-tech jobs because they just don't have the skills that are required," said James Hughes, an ecomomist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

He says part of that may be because potential workers have drifted off into other fields like engineering and health care.

"Manufacturing does not seem like a glamorous occupation, but it is a well-paying endeavor. We do have a mismatch of the requirements of those jobs and peoples' educational requirements to fill them," said Hughes.

According to data from the U.S. Labor Department, manufacturers nationwide have added jobs from February 2010 to February 2012 at a faster pace than the rest of the economy. Comparably, New Jersey lost 1,800 manufacturing jobs in February.

Historically, one of New Jersey's strengths was its manufacturing workforce, said Hughes. "But that dates back 30 or 40 years ago and that workforce has faded from the scene and there hasn't been any grooming of replacements for them."

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He said, "Its Midwestern states have rebounded in the area of manufacturing, an area where New Jersey has struggled. "

"These states have strong manufacturing cultures with large families continuing to train one another on these jobs, that culture does not exist in this state."

There is good news for New Jersey, said Hughes, who cautions that the state is not out of the game yet.

"The strong global rebound and New Jersey's ability to export shows that the state is still in this fight.  It will take upgrading the state's training programs and workforce development programs to provide the labor force that the manufacturing industries require so that the state's manufacturing sector has the real potential to grow."