What’s going on with supply chain jobs?
Dr. Kevin McCormack and Todd Brundrett are professors in the Operations and Supply Chain Management program at Northwood University. Doug Hentschel chairs that department. This piece is featured in the September 2022 When Free to Choose, a signature publication by Northwood University.
With the current supply chain challenges on everyone’s mind, numerous questions are on peoples’ minds. What’s going on with the people working in the supply chain? What do they think of their jobs? How much do they make? What kind of professional development are they involved in? How does the future look to them?
In order to get these answers, we looked at the 2022 Supply Chain Salary and Career report recently released by the Association for Supply Chain Management. This is a global survey of several levels (from buyer to executives) within the supply chain. Here’s what we found.
The people working in the supply chain love their jobs! In the middle of the current issues, job satisfaction is very high. Well over 70% of the people surveyed would recommend the supply chain as a career and over 70% had high job satisfaction. A majority — 64% — like the culture of their company or organization. This is astonishing in normal times but after the last few years of massive disruption in the global supply chain, this is very remarkable. They love their job and their career!
Regarding compensation and benefits, supply chain salaries have increased 12% since 2020 to $96,000 median total compensation with a range from $56,000 to $185,000. 71% reported additional compensation, ranging from $3,000 to $16,000. Education levels were from associate degrees and undergraduate degrees to graduate degrees. This appears to be a well-educated, well-compensated group of professionals that we are asking to restructure our global supply chains. It looks like they are capable and compensated well. A good predictor of success.
Several Universities have created Supply Chain Management undergraduate and graduate programs the last 15 years. The data reflects this, as 57% of workers age 29 and under have supply chain undergraduate education, and 67% of this age group have graduate education in supply chain management. This is almost double the 30-39 years old group (29% undergraduate and 36% graduate).
The technical supply chain skills that showed up in the survey were best practice knowledge, inventory management, project management, risk management and technology. Our conclusion is that this group is very educated in Supply Chain management, which indicates a highly capable group, getting better every year.
These results are very encouraging. We are very optimistic that this group can fix and improve the current supply chain and really build it back better than it was — making it efficient, dependable and more resilient. Plus they enjoy their work, and exemplify capability and passion. That’s the right mix for success.