Skilled Labor Vs. Unskilled Labor: What's The Difference?

Labor is one of the most significant factors of the free market economic system. It is crucial for every manufacturing company to develop effective labor strategies to make it possible for them to produce their goods at as low a cost as possible and get substantial revenue.

There are two primary types of labor - skilled and unskilled workers. In order to run a successful business and manufacture efficient goods, you should be fully aware of what is the difference between those two.

We have come up with a short explanation that will help you to finally understand the real difference. Let's dig in!

Skilled Labor

Skilled labor refers to those workers that have some specialized know-how, training, and experience. Thanks to all of that, they can receive more complicated mental or physical tasks than routine job ones.

You can differentiate skilled labor from unskilled workers by their higher education and excellent expertise levels, gained thanks to a lot of experience and training. As their jobs require more self-development, skilled workers usually have higher salaries.

In the highly competitive present market, skilled labor is vital. When you analyze the situation in developing Asian countries, you will see that they are expanding their skilled worker pools very quickly. 

Its importance is also appreciated by the United States and Western European countries, as they are focusing more and more on the preservation and development of the skilled labor workforce they employ.

Large companies (informally referred to as "Corporate America") offer complex formal training programs for both the new employees and the workforce that has already been with them for a long time.

When it comes to medium-sized and small businesses, they often have formal programs as well, but if they are not able to develop them yet, they at least apply on-the-job training that is focused on providing all the skills necessary for a particular job.

Examples of skilled labor jobs are:

• Welders
• CNC machinists
• Maintenance techs
• Industrial electricians
• Mechanics
• Press operators

How Will the Skilled Labor Develop?

As the economy is changing with respect to the development of knowledge-based jobs, in the future, skilled labor will probably be much different from what we know from the past and the present. 

As various technical advancements develop more and more rapidly, even a highly skilled workforce is afraid that someday robots or computer algorithms will replace them.

It often happens that high school students wonder what skills to develop in their further education and what specialized training to sign up for to have a lot of job opportunities in the future. 

It has been observed that high-standard manufacturing and professional work that requires specialized knowledge (like medicine, finance, or law) are endangered due to technical development.

Nowadays, it seems that skills in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) are the safest options that will help skilled labor workers remain competitive in the world of the modern global workforce.

Semi-Skilled Labor

Before we proceed with our skilled labor vs. unskilled labor comparison, we would like to mention that there are also some specific job positions that land somewhere in between. 

The term 'semi-skilled labor' refers to jobs that typically demand a certain level of specialized skills but do not require higher education degrees. One of the most common examples of semi-skilled labor is a truck driver.

Unskilled Labor

Unskilled labor refers to those types of workforces that demand only a limited set of skills.

Unskilled laborers typically have a lower level of education and hold just a high school diploma, GED, or do not have any of those.

For this reason, they get tasks that require less knowledge, expertise, and skills, which usually also results in earning less money (when you have the skilled labor vs. unskilled labor comparison in mind). 

Job positions that do not demand specialized skills, education, and experience are a good match for such laborers.

Unskilled labor is crucial to the overall labor market, as it can take care of various types of production tasks that are not associated with technical abilities or skills. 

In most cases, these are repetitive tasks that can be learned really quickly (usually in less than a month), so they have a low entry level. However, the average salary that unskilled laborers have is the minimum wage.

Here are some examples of unskilled labor jobs:

• Certain types of manufacturing workers
• Wire pullers
• Shop assistants
• Jobsite helpers

What Is the Future of Unskilled Labor?

Nowadays, when the whole world is struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for unskilled labor is growing. 

Such a workforce cannot stay home and work remotely as many skilled workers do nowadays.

Their job usually requires commuting to the workplace on a daily basis and having contact with other people on site. 

For this reason, it often happens that unskilled laborers need to be quarantined if it turns out they had contact with an infected person, and they have to be absent at work.

For an ongoing business, such as a manufacturing company, it is hard to deal with a lack of unskilled labor in their team. 

Such a situation requires looking for new workers constantly, and it takes a lot of time for recruitment, specialized training, and other types of actions associated with finding new people for the positions that demand filling.

However, it does not have to look this way. To quickly find unskilled laborers for any job that does not require high education, complex skills, and wide expertise, you can use the services of an experienced and specialized staffing agency, just like MADI.

Fill Your Unskilled Labor Positions with MADI

We understand that you may need unskilled labor positions to be filled as soon as possible because you cannot afford to miss your production deadlines. 

Keeping your business partners loyal to your brand requires meeting all their expectations and delivering their orders on time. We have access to a huge, nationwide talent pool, and we can provide you with temporary unskilled laborers amazingly quickly.

We are able to find a workforce for any number of jobs that do not require a lot of expertise all across the United States. 

You just need to explain to us what your demands are - let us know if it is work that requires at least some experience, is a high school diploma significant to you, and other crucial information. We have a wide range of specialized fields we work with, such as:

• Manufacturing
• Defense and Aerospace
• Beverage and Food
• Logistics and Warehousing
• Energy
• Chemicals

Our company has been helping American businesses since 1992, providing them with contingency plans and making it possible for them to stay operational even during such crises as natural disasters, labor disputes, labor shortages, and the present COVID-19 pandemic.

We can help you with the lack of both skilled and unskilled labor for various jobs in many different industries. 

The more specific you are in your quote, the more time we may require to find laborers that are perfect for a particular job, but with such a wide talent pool we have access to, it should not take too long. Thanks to our expertise, we know what unskilled labor workers will fit certain jobs best.

Call us for more detailed information on our skilled and unskilled labor job filling offer: 800-780-0500. You can also easily request a quote here.