Manufacturing has a long and storied history in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 1900s, Wisconsin was home to industry giants like Harley-Davidson, Kohler, Briggs & Stratton, J.I. Case, Allis-Chalmers, Pawling and Harnischfeger, Evinrude, Mercury Marine, S.C. Johnson and many more. These companies made products that not only grew the Wisconsin economy but also shaped the direction of the country.
Today, Wisconsin manufacturing still has a bright future with companies like Milwaukee Tool and Generac adding thousands of jobs in recent years. For each of the brand names you may recognize, there are hundreds of smaller companies that supply the parts needed for a final product. And many of these companies are hiring.
On the surface, you may think a factory is a dark, dirty or dangerous place to work, but modern manufacturing is increasingly done in bright, clean and safe facilities. More and more companies lean on automation to stay competitive. While that does mean certain jobs doing repetitive and boring tasks have disappeared, it also means new roles are created for people with the skills to program or fix robots and other technology.
