“The state of the dietary supplement manufacturing industry right now is extremely challenged. There's a lot going on. You have your supply chain issues where we see shortages of certain materials and surges and consumer demand. We see a high level of staff turnover within the manufacturing space. So we are seeing a lot of people moving on, especially in the areas of people working in the production,” said Ed Wyszumiala, Director of Customer Engagement at the USP Verification program. “It impacts quality GMP compliance and it really is causing manufacturers to reassess things. They've had a very, very interesting ride through the pandemic where we've seen the industry see significant growth and higher demand, but also the challenges with making sure your staff was properly equipped to deal with Covid, you had proper separations within manufacturing locations to ensure the safety of the staff and then also again this great resignation, that's gone on too, where you've lost a lot of people in manufacturing and that loss of knowledge can also impact the overall quality of the business.”
So how can employers retain workers?
Wyszumiala said jobs in manufacturing are not what are considered high paying jobs. “These are jobs paying anywhere between $8 to maybe $12 to $15 an hour. A lot of those people can take another job and be making more money in a warehouse somewhere, at a distribution center, or even in fast food, where the ability for those places to now start charging $15 an hour, $20 an hour for labor definitely is putting a challenge on. So that's going to also increase the cost of production because you're going to have to pay more in order to find good staff and then retain them.”
To hear more on the impacts of the ‘great resignation’ on the industry and what Wyszumiala thinks about the FDA’s push for mandatory products listings, listen to the NutraCast.
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