> Weaver and Osterman offer a more industry-specific explanation: The manufacturing industry has become so specialized that companies are looking for hyperspeci

> Weaver and Osterman offer a more industry-specific explanation: The manufacturing industry has become so specialized that companies are looking for hyperspecific skills that few outside workers could be expected to have. But companies have also become less likely to offer training for new hires. I would argue that it's not specific to manufacturing. This sounds pretty similar to a phenomenon found in software development. Sometimes the principal developer on a project leaves the company and no one can read their code. Even if you match the laundry list of technology buzzwords perfectly, their code could just be unreadable. Going deeper, maybe the problem is even more general than that. If you have manufacturing equipment that no one in your company knows how to use, is that still considered capital? If so, what is that capital worth? What about code no one in the company understands? Patents? Excel spreadsheets? Is it still intellectual property? Interesting times are ahead.