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SJVMA + CHAMBA Skills

What Valley manufacturers are short of

What the region reports

employees represented
2,005
leaders interviewed
26
training programs
142
schools and providers
75

Employer figures as of October 2026.

SJVMA's critical gaps

  • Self-Starting & Initiative

    Raised across the region, not tied to one industry.

    Build ownership into onboarding

  • AI & Digital Literacy

    New equipment and software adoption slows without it.

    Add a short AI and digital module for current technicians

  • Electrical Troubleshooting

    Held by senior staff only. A retirement risk.

    Cross-train mid-career technicians now

What employers need vs. what the region teaches

Employer-named gaps from fewer than 10 assessed employers. Bars count programs.

  • Safety and complianceEmployer-named gap · 50%+48
  • Maintenance and diagnosticsEmployer-named gap · 50%+45
All 12 skill areas on Programs

Who's in the alliance

38 members

By county

By industry

By size

Markets served

Fewer than 10 of 38 have claimed their profile.

4 more members are outside the region, in no regional figure.

Claim your companyAdds your own skill needs to these figures. Your company stays unnamed.

No company is named. Locations and sizes are SJVMA's public-source record, not a verified register. Groups under 3 employers show as Other.

What mid-level roles pay

Sample

Sample figures for illustration. They are not BLS data and not what employers report.

Industrial Machinery Mechanics$30–40/hr
Machinists$25–30/hr
Welders, Cutters, Solderers, and Brazers$20–25/hr
6 more roles, plus what employers in the region payUnlock with your HR interview

Where the region is heading

From SJVMA.

  • Rising:

    Work coming back to the US

    Companies are spending to grow

  • Rising:

    Making their own products

    Not just parts for someone else’s order

  • Falling:

    Workers harder to find than customers

    A flip from how business used to work

How these numbers work

Anonymity threshold

Figures come from CHAMBA Skills assessments completed by San Joaquin Valley Manufacturers Alliance members. A figure publishes only when at least 3 employers stand behind it and no single employer accounts for more than 80 percent of it. A withheld figure says so rather than showing a zero, and a place below that line is drawn exactly like a place with no data. No company is named or placed on a map.

Regional shares

Regional shares count employers in the places this map publishes. Employers in areas without a published area are not yet counted in regional shares. Employer gaps and program skills are sorted into the same 12 skill areas, so the match is by area, not by individual skill.

Pay figures

The public pay panel shows sample figures for illustration. The full table, which opens after an employer’s HR interview, uses the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release, and what employers in the region report. No individual company’s pay is ever shown.