The Gap Between Manufacturing Technicians Reaches 30 Million, Why Are Young People Reluctant To Enter The CNC Workshop?
The 25-year-old CNC machine tool operator submitted his resignation report in an industrial area in Dongkyu. "Last year, seven people were born at a seminar in the 1990s, and I was the last one born in the 1995s." He smiled in pain and showed the registration interface of the Food Delivery Knight on his phone. The program is being implemented simultaneously among 32,000 machinery manufacturing companies nationwide. The latest data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security shows that the gap for CNC operators has reached 23% of the manufacturing gap, and the average monthly salary for recruiting personnel remains difficult.
1. Misunderstanding "technical blue-collar"
Searching for CNC positions on recruitment sites, 60% of the job information is marked as “zero-base training received”, which is in stark contrast to the skilled work in the public’s perception. In fact, modern CNC operations have evolved from traditional lathes to precise manufacturing of human computer interactions: they need to understand G-code, main 3D modeling and debug accuracy tools. The director of the seminar of a smart manufacturing company in Guangzhou calculated that operators who pass the training must invest at least 3 months of practical training and 20,000 yuan of consumables.
2. "Invisible Trap" in the Payroll System
The 12-hour two shifts work system is followed by a superficial salary of RMB 8,000. According to the labor method, the actual salary of a CNC company in Dongkyu is only 28 yuan, which is lower than the local courier classifier. What’s even more cruel is the promotional channels: The survey shows that in five years, 76% of operators have not improved on the technical level, which is in stark contrast to the path of using 3 years as engineers under the dual education of Germany on average.
3. Smart factories have created new career choices
Wang Lei is a job seeker born in the 2000s. His experience is very representative: he entered the machine tool workshop of a state-owned enterprise under his father's arrangement, and then switched to drone flight control commissioning within three months. “It can also be programmed for screens, we can get in touch with AI and get in touch.” His choice reflects a new trend – the number of applicants for smart manufacturing engineering and technicians soared 280% in 2023, while applications for traditional machining positions fell by 41%.
4. Breaking the deadlock requires two-way innovation
The Health Machinery Company drove the "Digital Craftsman" training program and presented inspiring training: including CNC operators in R&D systems, open 3D printing and robot collaboration training, and promoted to a technical management position within two years. This composite training model of “technology + management” increases the retention rate of company employees from 47% to 82%.
When the wave of "machine replacement" swept the manufacturing industry, behind the vote under the feet of young people is the structural dislocation of industrial upgrading and talent training. The key to solving the 30 million technician gap may not be to increase the salary figures, but to rebuild the value cognitive system of skilled workers - after all, in the era of Industry 4.0, the hands that can control smart machine tools are the same as the fingertips of typing code.