The Northeast Wisconsin (NEW) Manufacturing Alliance’s announced on Friday, May 2, its 2025 Aging Workforce study at the Future of Work Summit on Succession Planning at Fox Valley Technical College.
The organization surveyed its members in February and March 2025 to understand the impact of the aging workforce in northeast Wisconsin. This study was like one done in 2017. The survey explored manufacturers’ concerns about the impact of the retiring workforce; average age and tenure of its production and engineering workforce; ages in key occupational fields; and best practices to address the issue of knowledge loss. There were 65 companies that completed the survey; they employ 14,961 people or 10 percent of the entire manufacturing workforce in the region. The findings highlight their concern and demonstrate the need to develop a strategy to address this issue. An Alliance taskforce is currently dedicated to finding and sharing best practices, and communicating about the key occupations that will be in high demand due to significant retirements.
Of the companies surveyed, 75% expressed concern about their workforce retiring, however only 37% had a plan to address the issue.
The study found that the average age for production workforce is 38, which is younger than the national average of 44 years. The average age for engineers is 42 years of age for engineers, which is similar to the national average age of 43 years of age. Tenure for production workers was significantly higher for Alliance members of 9 years, compared to the national average of 4.9 years. In addition, the Alliance engineering workforce’s tenure, 10 years, is higher than the national average of 4.9 years.
The study asked how many people were 56 years and older in key occupations. Machinist were found to have 44% of respondents stated this critically important position were 56 years and older. Other key positions in the workforce that are 56 years and older are 45% of engineers, 40% of plant managers and 38% of welders.
There were a few key findings in comparing the 2017 study to the 2025 study. There is still strong concern regarding the aging workforce, although lower than the 85% that reported concern in 2017. The average age of a production worker is younger than the 2017 study, the previous study had the age being 43 years old. The efforts of the NEW Manufacturing Alliance have made a difference in promoting manufacturing careers to youth.
Questions regarding the event should contact Ann Franz at 920-606-7691 or email ann.franz@nwtc.edu. For more information about the NEW Manufacturing Alliance, go to www.newmfgalliance.org.
