Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier Executive Director Todd Tranum said manufacturing is the backbone of the economy for Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and Allegany Counties, “$7.5 billion in shipments are exported from this region every year. And here’s the impact on the lives of people in our region of what that $7.5 billion in shipments means – It supports 18,000 family-sustaining jobs. It produces $805 million in payroll. And it provides $241 million in benefits.”

Ring Precision President and CEO Dale Gier said one of his company’s strugges is the loss of experienced employees due to retirement, “So, the reason we have been so actively pushing for the advancement in manufacturing and the technologies we need is, selfishly, we need these people to come and work for us to produce productive hours that then we can use to ship our products throughout the world. We are a global shipper so Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Israel – all daily conversations.”

Jamestown Community College and P-Tech Student Hope Smith has been part of the program for six years and will be graduating this Spring with a certificate of design in CAD. She said a manufacturers meeting between businesses and students led to her being able to get a summer internship with Bush Industries, “From there my summer internship ended and I went back for my senior year of college. Since then I was recently welcomed back as their new engineering technician and I’ve been working there for around three months.”

Smith said she encourages students to look into manufacturing because of the opportunities available.