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ABA Released New Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Study of the U.S. Commercial Baking Industry

ABA’s History of Bringing the Industry Together

The ABA and American Society of Baking (ASB) joint study, 2021 Workforce Gap in U.S. Commercial Baking: Recruitment Trends & Best Practices was conducted in October 2021 by Cypress Research. The study assesses challenges and best practices for workforce recruitment in the U.S. commercial baking industry.
An update to 2016’s, Workforce Gap Study, the 2021 findings help baking employers better understand the current recruitment trends for hourly, skilled production employees and how they have changed in the past five years. The study also explores new in-depth industry data on the recruitment of drivers and hourly, unskilled production employees.
2021 Workforce Recruitment Key Findings (179.51 KB) | 179.51 KB |
The ASB/ABA study found that the greatest current workforce gap among U.S. commercial bakers is among hourly maintenance and engineering positions, with 78 percent reporting a ‘high’ or ‘severe’ shortage, and will remain at this level unless programs are adopted to help close this gap.
Companies project that hourly machine operators’ positions, unskilled production positions, and salaried scientist and research and development positions will skyrocket in the next 10 years.
ABA and ASB believe this research provides direction on how individual companies can make progress in filling the workforce skills gap.
Workforce Skills Gap Final Report (1.37 MB) | 1.37 MB |
Bakery Workforce Case Studies (10.3 MB) | 10.3 MB |
Best Practices to Fill the Workforce Gap in the Baking Industry (539.54 KB) | 539.54 KB |
The future of the wholesale baking industry is dependent upon attracting, training, and retaining highly skilled talent at all levels of the workforce. Our exclusive professional development programs are dedicated to helping Member companies promote and grow the industry's most important ingredient: our workforce.