Around 80% of surveyed packaging industry stakeholders are looking to hire packaging line operators and having trouble doing so.
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The packaging industry is facing mounting workforce challenges, with companies reporting high turnover, difficulty hiring skilled workers, and trouble moving toward computerized equipment.
While the pandemic-era workforce turbulence that marked recent years has calmed, persistent trends like a lack of applicants, low retention rates, and training hurdles for advanced machinery will continue to hinder operations until the industry adopts fresh strategies.
“It’s a combination of finding the educated people that want to work on a production line and then having he commitment that you’re going to educate the people and teach them how that equipment works,” says Brian Stepowany, senior manager of packaging R&D at B&G Foods, the brand owner of Green Giant, Crisco, Ortega, and several others. Stepowany notes a difficulty in “getting the higher output, more expensive machinery, with screens, computer systems, and potentially AI capabilities moving forward, and having the people to run it.”
Difficulties in hiring unexperienced operators
In a survey on the packaging workforce conducted for the Annual Outlook Report, packaging industry stakeholders reported hiring challenges even for “unskilled packaging operators,” or workers who will need training before they can run packaging machinery.
Over half (58%) of respondents say it’s somewhat difficult to find unskilled packaging operators, while 20% find it very difficult, for a total of 78% running into challenges as they seek out unskilled workers. As for the rest, 11% of respondents find it easy to hire these workers, while 11% are simply not hiring for this type of position.
Competition with other companies seeking employees contributes to the lack of applicants, respondents claim. One respondent notes they find it “harder to recruit in rural areas due to heavy competition, which brings about examination of compensation and benefits packages.”
Another respondent concurs, expecting in the next year that, “difficulty in finding new employees will continue to increase; pay constraints make it difficult to compete with other companies.”
The hiring challenge is also a generational problem, respondents indicate. “It’s getting more challenging, due to the fact that old workers are retiring, and the new generation is not showing interest in this kind of labor,” one respondent says. “They are more into technology and wanting to work remotely.”
Even when CPG companies manage to attract young workers, the retirement of experienced packaging line operators creates a skills gap that requires extensive training for new hires. “You have to work your way up through the ranks,” Stepowany explains. “[The company is] not going to immediately put you in charge of a machine, because it’s an expensive machine, there are requirements as far as throughput and volumes to produce each day.”
The growing adoption of advanced automated machinery adds to hiring challenges, as companies need more experienced applicants, extended training periods, or greater buy-in from seasoned workers to effectively operate the line.
“Old-timers are going to be less likely to want to learn those systems,” says Stepowany. “It’s not as easy as someone coming out of high school, community college, or college, who is going to spend the time and energy to run a piece of equipment.”
As the skill level rises, so does the hiring challenge
In hiring “skilled packaging operators,” or those who join with prior experience and training, the problem is even more pronounced. More companies overall are having difficulties finding skilled (85%) workers compared to unskilled (78%), which is a small but significant gap. Worse yet, a much larger percentage of them (42% compared to 20%) claim that the difficulties are major.
The share of surveyed company representatives that find it somewhat difficult to hire skilled candidates is 43%, slightly smaller compared to unskilled workers. The share that finds it very difficult to find skilled candidates is significantly larger though, at 42% of respondents.
Differences are marginal on the end of the spectrum that don’t seem to be feeling the workforce shortage pain. A smaller percentage (5%) think it’s easy to find skilled candidates, than think it’s easy to find unskilled (11%). About the same number of respondents just don’t have their hat in the ring looking for these positions (11% aren’t looking for unskilled positions, 10% aren’t looking for skilled positions). Regardless, what’s pretty stunning is that only around 10% of survey respondents aren’t looking for either skilled or unskilled candidates, and only another 10% find it easy to find them. That means around 80% are looking for skilled and unskilled workers and they’re having trouble doing so.
Respondents indicate the problem isn’t going away anytime soon. Nearly half (48%) of respondents anticipate that finding these workers will become even more challenging over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, 37% expect hiring difficulties to remain unchanged, and only 8% are optimistic about improvement. An additional 7% of respondents say they have no plans to hire for these positions in the next year.
“Packaging professionals with the preferred backgrounds are difficult to find. We are having to hire less experienced people and train them, which takes far longer than we would like,” one respondent says.
Several factors can contribute to a company’s ability to attract skilled packaging talent.
“It depends upon the need, the equipment, and the location. Is your plant located by a major city that has a bigger draw, or are you in the middle of a farm field up in Wisconsin or Minnesota? You have to understand your minimum requirement, your ideal requirement, and how much you are willing to pay, and how much you are willing to invest in that person to get them to where they can operate the equipment,” Stepowany says.
What sets maintenance technicians apart
Hiring challenges for skilled packaging machinery maintenance technicians present a slightly different story. While the difficulties remain, a notable number of companies are opting not to hire these workers at all.
The largest share of companies (40%) report that it is very difficult to fill these positions. An additional 32% describe the process as somewhat difficult, leaving only a small percentage (7%) who say it is easy to find qualified candidates.
About a fifth (21%) of respondents aren’t actively looking to hire maintenance technicians at all. Among these, 47% rely on their equipment manufacturers to handle machine maintenance, suggesting that outsourcing maintenance has become a viable alternative for some companies.
The shift toward advanced automation in packaging machinery could be contributing to this reliance on outside support, Stepowany says. Drawing on his 40 years of experience in the industry, he notes a shift away from in-house fabrication of parts for maintenance.
“Now it’s all laser cut, so that shop within the facility has gone away. Someone who has been the shop mechanic or line mechanic for a period of time, if they retire, you don’t replace them,” Stepowany says. “You have your line technician who can tweak and adjust things, maybe switch a belt. But for a major overhaul, you’re going outside.”
Automation infusion
Automated equipment may be able to replace simple or mundane tasks on the packaging line, but it requires some in-house expertise to run properly, according to Brant Blanchard, instrument and electrical specialist at poultry producer Pilgrim’s.
“A machine is no smarter than a person, but if you find a smart person to program it, it’s going to work well. It does what the programmer tells it to do, as opposed to putting somebody out [on the line] that doesn’t really know what to do,” Blanchard explains. “The problem is when it breaks, finding somebody that knows how to fix it.”
This problem can be alleviated to an extent for end users if OEMs “design automation that’s easy to fix,” Blanchard says, suggesting the implementation of intuitive troubleshooting and diagnostics. Perhaps onboard AI could be on the way to help? (see this Packaging World article on AI chat-enabled packaging machine copilots to learn more.)
Blanchard recognizes the difficulty of sourcing talent who can troubleshoot and fix equipment when it breaks, but he also sees automation as an opportunity for more technical careers if companies fully commit to it. “It would make more high-tech jobs, to give people more of an incentive to go into things like computer programming, like a mix between blue and white collar,” he says.
Worker retention in packaging
Finding qualified machine operators or maintenance technicians is just the first hurdle for CPG companies; retention remains a significant challenge, as highlighted by survey respondents.
More than half (58%) of respondents are experiencing between 10% and 29% annual turnover. The greatest share, 34% of all respondents, sees 10-19% turnover, while another quarter (24%) see 20-29% annual turnover. Just over a quarter of respondents (26%) are experiencing turnover rates higher than that, anywhere above 30%.
In an open-ended question on the state of the packaging workforce and how it might change over the next year, several responses indicated frustrations with high turnover.
“I foresee a rotating door where a minimum increase in wage will be incentive for an employee to at minimum look elsewhere and likely go. [I expect] a four-to-six-month rotation from job to job,” says one respondent.
Another respondent shares a similar sentiment, saying, “I would like to see an increase in skilled workers, but there is a lack of work ethic in many that we see. It seems that we keep someone for two to three months, then they go somewhere else that pays more, and they consistently do this throughout the area. It is a vicious cycle. So, there may be more skilled people out there, but without the work ethic or desire to remain at one job for long periods of time, I do not see a lot of hope.”
Chief Editor’s note: I personally wouldn’t charge employees who “go somewhere else that pays more” with a “lack of work ethic.” I’d chalk that up to common sense. Work ethic and supply/demand economics are two different subjects, but I’ll grant that both are certainly factors in today’s packaging workforce dynamic.
Compensation, and competition as workers move to other companies for better offers, were consistent themes in these responses. The scarcity of packaging engineers can place companies in a bidding war as workers jump to the next company for better pay and benefits.
“If the person is at Company A and he’s making $15 an hour, and Company B says, ‘Hey, you can come here and we’ll give you better benefits, we’ll pay $18 an hour,’ who’s going to stop Company A from coming back in a year or two and offering the guy $20? It’s a vicious cycle,” says Stepowany. “There are games going on in the packaging engineering field, because there is a limited number of potential employees.”
If operational constraints allow for it, a stronger commitment to creating a stable, competitive environment can be a solution to worker retention. Stepowany points to an anecdote where culture around workforce commitments played a significant role in operations.
“We had an East Coast and a West Coast supplier. The East Coast one had no issues whatsoever. But the West Coast, there was nothing but complaints,” Stepowany says. Upon investigation, the problem became clear. “We went to the West Coast supplier and found out that they were using temps. They didn’t have the commitments to keep the people there, offering the benefits, offering the pay that’s required.”
This lack of commitment to workers led to a reciprocal lack of dedication from the workers, incentivizing them to leave for the next available opportunity.
“If that’s the case, then you have to adjust what you’re doing or understand the marketplace better,” says Stepowany.
Pilgrim’s has demonstrated a commitment to its maintenance technicians through training, according to Blanchard.
All maintenance employees at Pilgrim’s participate in an Impact Training program, which includes general instruction and detailed training on specific crafts, using online classes and in-person lab training with instructors.
“It’s also based on your pay scale,” Blanchard says. “Everybody that comes in takes a test, and whatever you score on that test, basically the level you’re at, that’ what you’re hired at. As you go through the training and go up a level, you immediately get a raise whenever you increase.”
This method continuously upskills workers and incentivizes commitment to stay at the company in the process.
Read how companies including FANUC and Delkor are aligning industry and education to better train employees and bolster the future workforce at Packaging World.
Where companies are seeking their workers
If CPG companies are struggling to find workers, it’s worth considering where they’re searching.
When asked about their top three hiring methods for the next year, packaging stakeholders largely pointed to digital tools. Over half of respondents cited online job portals like LinkedIn or Indeed (52%) and their company website’s career page (51%) as preferred methods. These approaches reflect an effort to engage workers in the digital spaces with which they are likely familiar.
Companies are also taking advantage of industry and workforce networking through active workforce connection programs. The most popular methods within this category are recruitment agencies and staffing firms (37%) and job fairs (16%).
Passive hiring methods are used at a rate comparable to active networking initiatives. Notably, 37% of respondents rely on employee referral incentive programs as a preferred hiring method; the same percentage that favors recruitment agencies and staffing firms. Walk-in applicants also fall within this category, with 19% of respondents identifying it as a preferred method.
Academic resources for job placement and hiring might be underutilized as a hiring method in packaging among our survey respondents. Each method within this category (10% local community colleges/technical schools, 8% university internships, and 8% on-campus recruiting) garnered 10% utilization or less. Another way to look at it, of course, is that together, those three academic categories represent 26% utilization. Though that still trails passive digital’s (LinkedIn, Indeed) 52% usage rate, passive digital is certainly easier to do.
Representatives from the community college ranks certainly think these programs and institutions present significant untapped potential. Still, there are several reasons companies may not engage with these resources, according to Dan Ortego, apprenticeship manager at the College of Lake County, a Northern Illinois community college which provides hands-on training and education for STEM careers. There’s plenty of blame to go around, he says, so maybe these programs represent white space for better recruiting into packaging jobs.
Read about a December 2024 workforce discussion that took place at the College of Lake County's new Advanced Technology Center at OEM Magazine.
“On the college and technical training side, it could be a lack of awareness of what skills are needed or what types of jobs are available in the packaging and processing industry, and/or a lack of knowledge about who to connect with to establish relationships,” Ortego says. “On the employer side, most employers have limited resources and may need to fill the position quickly. Employers will go where they have established relationships, a quick return on investment, and fill the position.”
Community college or technical school students are often recent high school graduates, those who are switching careers, or those who are returning to the workforce after some years away, Ortego explains. While students gain hands-on technical experience in these programs, some companies might hesitate to hire them with a limited resume or relevant work experience.
On the other hand, companies struggling to hire packaging line operators and machine technicians may benefit from turning their focus toward these potential applicants.
“The biggest advantage to partnering is developing a pipeline of talent with apprentices and interns who have a solid technical foundation and are taught skills correctly and safely,” says Ortego.
These academic programs can also help to upskill the current workforce, to “grow future managers and leaders for their organizations,” he adds.
Only 17% of surveyed packaging industry respondents report finding it easy to train employees on computerized, automated equipment, with 69% experiencing some challenges, and 14% finding it very difficult. Academic resources could be a valuable solution for this, allowing companies to tap into established curriculums and proven methods of education for their current and future workforce.
B&G Foods leverages academic partnerships with notable success, according to Stepowany. Although these resources are less frequently applied to packaging line roles, “we definitely use technical schools as well as colleges as far as quality, supply chain, throughout corporate, as well as in the plants,” he says. “It’s a good testing field to see what the people are like, and it gives them experience as well.”
Alleviating workforce challenges in the year ahead
As the packaging industry navigates its workforce challenges, there are encouraging signs of stability and opportunity.
“B&G itself is in the mode for buying new equipment, updating things, reinvesting our money within the facilities. We’re not seeing that backlog that we’ve seen for maintenance, new equipment, even spare parts,” says Stepowany. “Things have settled down a bit, and I think people are feeling the same way, as far as committing to full-time jobs and working for the long run.”
The shift away from pandemic-era operational pressures may help to foster an environment of long-term stability and growth, both for companies and employees.
To tackle today’s hiring and retention challenges, companies can consider investments in training programs and academic partnerships, and cultivate a workplace environment that offers competitive compensation, cultural value, stability, and clear opportunities for growth.
Methodology
In the inaugural Annual Outlook Report, PMMI Media Group editors reveal, analyze, interpret, and discuss with experts results of the first-ever Packaging World Annual Outlook Report. The undertaking represents a wide-ranging, big-picture view of the most impactful topics and issues faced by brand owners, consumer- packaged goods (CPG) companies, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, and food and beverage manufacturers and packagers.
Over the course of July, August, and September 2024, editors developed, pressure-tested with CPG experts, and deployed five distinct email surveys. Containing only eight to 10 questions each, these surveys aimed to bring into sharp relief the nuanced features of what to expect from in packaging over the coming year. The surveys were sent to equally portioned segments of PW’s CPG readership, on these five pillar topics:
Sustainability—88 respondents
Automation & Robotics—118 respondents
Workforce—79 respondents
E-comm & D2C—118 respondents
Digitalization—96 respondents
A sixth topic and pillar of the Annual Outlook Report, on the topic of contract packaging, piggybacked off survey results gathered and analyzed by PMMI’s Business Intelligence, released in October 2024’s “Contract Packaging & Manufacturing: Drivers of Machinery Investments.” From the wider results of that report, we narrowed our focus to the specific voices of brand owners, and their sustained interest in contract packaging services.
What's in store for CPGs in 2025 and beyond? Packaging World editors explore the survey responses from 118 brand owners, CPG, and FMCG Packaging World readers for its new Annual Outlook Report.
Hiring remains a major challenge in packaging, with 78% struggling to fill unskilled roles and 84% lacking experienced workers. As automation grows, companies must rethink hiring and training. Download the full report for key insights.
