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ESCANABA -- According to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management, and Budget, in June, the U.P.'s unemployment rate rose to 10.1 percent.

On Friday, a group of job seekers toured Engineered Machined Products in Escanaba to find out what positions are out there for them.

There's an increasing need for computer-aided design workers.  And this surprised some of the participants.

“I didn't know that this facility here existed to begin with,” explained participant Ben Reath.  “I also didn't know that the Research and Development facility here is so advanced."

Experts say 22.3 percent of jobs in the region are in manufacturing.  But there's a shortfall of 3,000 skilled workers in this industry.

Representatives from different U.P. manufacturing companies also attended and discussed the importance of not outsourcing.

“The people in the U.P. have a different work ethic,” said Nick Schoen, an estimator at Systems Control.  “They're hard workers and they'll do whatever they have to in order to get this job done.  So that's the kind of people that we're looking for."

And what new things did the job seekers learn?

“With companies like this,” explains participant Brandon Hopp, “you get to see, wow, there's a job in the area in a field I like.  So I’m hoping it all works out."

Other available industry positions are test engineers, welders, and assemblers.  There's even local training for these jobs at Bay College in Escanaba.

About 95 percent of the workers at the EMP Advanced Products facility are from the U.P., and the company is hoping to soon hire more people from the area.