To address the original question:

There are no young people coming into the maintenance end of the industry because it is a skilled trade and we, as a society, have pushed our youth away from the skilled trades and continue to do so. We tell all of our youth that the path to success is as much college as possible and white collar job. We push our brightest students away from any kind of skilled trade or manual labor no matter what their interests or aptitudes are; this implies to them that blue collar jobs are somehow 'lesser' jobs. This has been going on for years and is only getting worse. When I was in high school int he 90's my councilors pushed me away from the career path I wanted as a aircraft mechanic because I was, 'To smart for that kind of work.' Never mind that it was the sort of work I enjoy and had an aptitude for and had good earning potential; in the eyes of the PC zombies that run our schools it could not possibly have been as good or fulfilling a job as being an accountant, never mind how much I would have hated an office job...

Material handling is not the only trade to be feeling this pinch. HVAC, automotive, plumbing and other industries are having trouble finding good young techs interested in a career as a tradesman. Personally I think we are headed for a big mess in the next couple of decades as the last of the skilled 'old timers' retire.

Personally I have stopped trying to hire people out of tech schools or other industries because often, due to the fact that we steer smart kids away from the trades, the people coming out of these schools just don't have the skills to pay the bills when it comes down to real world trouble shooting. Anymore I hire people with mechanical aptitude and concentrate on training them up in house.

Finding good people in our industry is also complicated by the fact that many of our techs are on the road and working in what are not always the best conditions. It makes the work a challenge, one I enjoy but many other people do not. Then there is the fact that we have to deal with many different systems that make a lift truck technician need greater skills then the average auto tech.