The Challenge We Face

Competing and thriving in tomorrow's marketplace demands that industrial distribution successfully attract the next generation of new talent.

The failure to do so puts industrial distribution at risk.

Industrial distribution is a critical link in the global supply chain, representing about 6 percent of U.S. and Canadian GDP and 1 percent of the U.S. workforce (2 percent in Canada).

Industrial distributors have good jobs with good pay and good working conditions offering great career pathways, interesting work and new challenges every day.

But we face a competitive disadvantage because potential future employees don't know about industrial distributors and the opportunities offered for good, interesting jobs with a path to advancement.

Our workforce is aging and retiring in growing numbers. Without their experience, we lose product and customer knowledge we rely on. It takes years to train capable outside sales people, and turnover is costly to the distributor and to the customer.

Industrial distributors are already having difficulty filling key sales positions.  We must find the ways to attract tomorrow's key employees today.

But industrial distributors are competing for talent with better known (although not necessarily better paid) employment sectors like health care, information technology and green industries.

If industrial distributors cannot meet these challenges and compete for the skilled workforce we need, our industry will die.

Industrial Careers Pathway is meeting the challenge of filling the industrial distribution sales and customer service employee pipeline.