While today’s “smart” factories are driving demand for digitally skilled workers, 71% of Americans still do not perceive manufacturing jobs as high-tech occupations, according to a survey conducted by ORC International for Proto Labs, a digital manufacturer. Those attitudes could mean problems for U.S. industrial companies that will need workers to fill manufacturing jobs during the next decade, according to Proto Labs.

More than two-thirds of Americans don't see manufacturing as a high-tech career choice. When asked to describe the daily routine of someone employed in manufacturing today, 55% of survey respondents cited dated images of workers doing their jobs among machines. While plant floor roles remain an important part of the manufacturing ecosystem, Proto Labs says that industry has introduced numerous roles helping to bolster the digital manufacturing industry.

When asked to think about the setting for manufacturing work, about 10% of respondents pictured a software developer in front of a computer screen. Proto Labs says that misses the fact that manufacturing workers are developing software that expedites the front end of the manufacturing process, and are enabling more efficient work on the plant floor.

Survey respondents also underestimated the wage level of manufacturing workers, with about one-third saying that they don’t think jobs in that sector are high-paying. Proto Labs quotes U.S. Department of Labor statistics that suggests software developers in the digital manufacturing space can earn more than $100,000 a year.

The disconnect between the perception of manufacturing work and the reality reflects a growing crisis in the industry, the company says. Over the next decade, nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will likely need to be filled because of baby boomer retirements and U.S. economic expansion, according to the Manufacturing Institute. But an estimated 2 million of those jobs could go unfilled.

The survey, conducted in Sepptember 2016, consisted of a sample of 1,023 U.S. citizens and made up of 512 men and 511 women 18 and older.