Results of a recent survey that included welders and fabricators show that U.S. manufacturing businesses will have a diminishing ability to compete globally because of a growing shortage of qualified employees.

The survey, done by the National Association of Manufacturers, said a dwindling supply of skilled workers and growing technical demands in the manufacturing workplace will combine to reduce U.S. manufacturing's competitive edge in the global marketplace.

The survey found that more than 80 percent of manufacturers are seeing an overall shortage of qualified, skilled production workers, engineers and scientists.

In addition, the survey said manufacturers are seeing greatly reduced skills among their employees.

Richard Kleinert of Deloitte Consulting LLP, which conducted the survey for the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a news release that 83 percent of the respondents to the survey said shortages of qualified workers currently are reducing their ability to meet orders from their customers.

In addition, 75 percent of the respondents said that a skilled workforce is the most important factor to ensure the future success of their businesses.

After noting that the challenge for U.S. manufacturers will be to attract, retain and motivate a high-performance workforce in the face of gloomy demographic and education trends, John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, called for a bold agenda that would unite government, business and educators, and increase emphasis on providing better education in science, math and technology at the K through 12 levels of education, increased emphasis on workforce development at the college level and for employers to invest at least 3 percent of their payrolls on training for current employees.

Complete survey results are available at www.nam.org/2005 skillsgap