1、October 2022 Afriandi/Getty ImagesAdvanced Industries PracticeThe Titanium Economy:How to overcome the challenge of filling high-quality jobsThriving industrial technology companies use apprenticeships,upskilling,and upward mobility to staff and retain their workforces.by Kimberly Borden,David Ebens

2、tein,Inga Maurer,and Asutosh PadhiThis is the second article in a series about the Titanium Economy.1 In future articles,we will dive deeper into sustainability in industrials and trends that will disrupt the industry.In recent decades,headlines have chronicled the decline of manufacturing in the Un

3、ited Statesand the decline of good,middle-class jobs along with it.But the coverage has almost entirely overlooked a vibrant sector within manufacturing:industrial technology.This sector,which we call the Titanium Economy,is brimming with high-quality jobs with good pay and benefits that could creat

4、e oppor-tunities for millions of workers across the country.But creating the jobs and filling them are different stories.In the past ten years,2.4 million industrial jobs went unfilled in the United States,costing the economy$2.5 trillion,according to McKinsey estimates.Furthermore,unfilled jobs wer

5、e a primary reason that seven in ten companies fell behind in scheduled production,leading many industrial leaders to identify labor shortages as a challenge to growth.Companies in the Titanium Economy are positioned to overcome the challenge of filling these jobs.The roles they seek to fill are goo

6、d,viable jobs,which are the foundation of experience-based job progressions.2 In many cases,Titanium Economy careers dont require a traditional four-year degree and pay on average more than double the wages of workers in the service sector,or 13 percent more than workers in comparable nondegree posi