One obvious solution could be millennials, young people born in the 1980s and 1990s, currently the largest generation in the U.S. population. But manufacturers face an uphill battle wooing this group. The reason: For millennials choosing careers today, the most sought-after industry is technology, according to another study by the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte. Though modern manufacturing relies heavily on high-tech applications, millennials don’t automatically connect the two. Indeed, manufacturing ranked seventh in that study.

“What millennials don’t realize is that modern manufacturing is full of cutting-edge technology,” says Jennifer McNelly, executive director of the Manufacturing Institute. Research by the Washington-based institute shows that more than two-thirds of U.S. manufacturing companies are adopting 3-D printing and more than half use robots.

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