[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]As President and CEO of the 20,000-member New Jersey Business & Industry Association, Siekerka has her finger on the pulse of what business owners need to succeed here. While many are no longer bound by the tough COVID-19 restrictions that hurt the national economy, many of them are struggling to find raw materials, goods and labor. Those problems will not go away quickly, and need insights from figures like Siekerka and her organization.

Siekerka has a thorough and nuanced understanding of the issue and has eschewed simple answers and easy criticisms. “There’s no one silver bullet,” she told NJBIZ in July. “I truly believe there’s a lot of pieces to a comprehensive plan, and it can just be everything from the right working conditions — without throwing money at it for some people — because you will hear from next generation workers all about mission-driven jobs and good work flexibility, not necessarily about money. They’re not going to leave for money. They’re going to leave for a mission-driven organization, good culture and good flexibility in the workplace.”

NJBIA has its roots in manufacturing, having been founded in 1910 as the Manufacturers Association of the State of New Jersey by several mill owners, rebranding as the New Jersey Manufacturers Association in the 1930s and later the NJBIA.

As the NJBIA notes, the state’s multibillion dollar manufacturing sector is “no longer just the smokestack industries we remember from years ago,” but rather it can entail “work of highly-skilled employees on computer automated machines that require attention to detail and the ability to solve complex problems.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]