On June 1st 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a statement saying, "The unemployment rate edged down to 3.8 percent in May." This is the lowest unemployment rate since 2000 and a sign that the job market has become even more competitive and "manufacturing employment continued to expand over the month (+18,000)." Additionally, their workforce statistics have preliminary job openings in manufacturing at 451,000 for April 2018.
As the competition for qualified workers continues to grow, manufacturers are needing to come up with outside of the box solutions for labor and staffing in order to meet customers' product demand. One way to combat the shortage in the labor market is to outsource aspects of your manufacturing to a contract packager.