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Posted on 07/19/2025 10:19:32 AM PDT by Twotone
Blue-collar hero and former host of "Dirty Jobs" Mike Rowe says claims of a massive deficit of trades workers in the United States are not hyperbole.
Rowe spoke at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, where he sounded the alarm on a serious lack of young people going into the trades.
Providing stories from employers, politicians, and even the military, Rowe stressed the need to move away from computer programming and coding in favor of tougher, more traditional career paths.
"We've been telling kids for 15 years to learn to code," Rowe told an audience at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He then delivered a stark warning to those who may have followed Joe Biden's infamous "learn to code" advice in 2019.
"Well, AI is coming for the coders," Rowe remarked.
From there, the 63-year-old dropped some industry knowledge, detailing that the demand for tradespeople was not going away any time soon: "[AI is] not coming for the welders, the plumbers, the steamfitters, the pipe fitters, the HVAC. They're not coming for the electricians."
Adopting a more serious tone, Rowe leaned in to the audience to deliver the jaw-dropping numbers of exactly how many trade jobs remain vacant in the United States.
Recalling his time at the Aspen Ideas Festival in late June, Rowe said billionaire investor and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told him the U.S. needs "500,000 electricians in the next couple of years — not hyperbole."
"This is me being the alarmist again," Rowe continued, now tapping into America's military industrial needs.
"The BlueForge Alliance, who oversees our maritime industrial base — that's 15,000 individual companies who are collectively charged with building and delivering three nuclear-powered subs to the Navy every year for 10 years."
Rowe explained that the head of the alliance called him and said, "We're having a hell of a time finding tradespeople. Can you help?"
Rowe replied, "I don't know, man, it's pretty skinny out there. How many do you need?"
The man indicated to Rowe that the industry needed 140,000 people over the next seven years.
"They need 80 to 90 thousand right now," Rowe emphasized. "These are for our submarines, folks. [If] things go hypersonic — a little sideways with China, Taiwan — our aircraft carriers are no longer the point of the spear. They're vulnerable."
Rowe added, "Our submarines matter, and these guys have a pinch point because they can't find welders and electricians to get them built."
The Trump administration drastically increased naval production in April 2025 through an executive order that placed at least $40 billion per year into shipbuilding efforts for the next 30 years.
With fewer than 300 battle force ships in the U.S. Navy currently, according to the Military Times, the president set a goal for a 381-ship fleet.
To that end, the Discovery Channel host said he is consistently getting calls from tradespeople, companies, and even governors, who ask him a simple question.
"Where are they?" they ask Rowe, referring to tradespeople. "They've said, 'We've looked everywhere.'"
Rowe revealed his response to industry leaders: "I know where they are. They're in the eighth grade."
The trades advocate stressed that a "clear and present freakout" was happening under the surface in America in the automotive and energy industries, suggesting that children need to be encouraged to go into these fields.
"The automotive industry needs 80,000 collision repair and technicians," he explained. "Energy, I don't even know what the number is — I hear 300,000; I hear 500,000."
The latter is likely to do with not only nuclear-powered subs but also small modular reactors that are popping up across the United States to supply the growing power demand from data centers, new and old.
Several large companies like Amazon and Microsoft are building new, massive data centers and campuses to house data and AI machine-learning systems. These new locations require so much power that they have put stress on existing power grids, necessitating their own energy sources.
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A neat Trump/Rowe tie-in that the enemedia neglected to mention, from 2016 on an autographed bathrobe...
https://mikerowe.com/2016/08/trump-bathrobe-auction-thanks-angela/
During the first year of Covid, we all learned who had the actually necessary jobs. The people who stayed home using their computers got paid more, but the people who were out there whether they were working in stores, delivering goods, repairing power lines, or repairing cars, were the ones who were essential. Many of those sitting at home will be replaced by AI next time.
Mike Rowe’s Mother Had an Important Warning for Him Before He Met Trump
Glad he’s out there. I sometimes wonder if it’s too late for good guys like him. The skills gap does not get closed with a 1-2 year certificate. Too many unfunctionals out there.
The power grid is a mess and huge demand is on the horizon from AI. I think AI will be held back by inability to build out the grid fast enough to serve AI consumption.
My son was born in ‘82. I guess that makes him an early millennial. I told him that so long as he was willing to work he would probably never have to worry about having a job for the rest of his life. So far I have been right. There was no way the sparse generations since X would ever replace the Boomers.
I had an X helper here on the farm but had to fire him and wish it had not been so but I could not tolerate the risk of his having returned to old bad habits. I have not looked very hard to find a replacement but when I do I find the field is all but vacant for candidates. My only viable responses to the loss of help are to: do less, work smarter, mechanize or quit. I have not quit yet.
Covid was the straw that broke the camel’s back all at once instead of over a period of a few more years when it came to the “great replacement”. We mid to late Boomers will be taken care of by third world recruits or robots or not at all. The time for that is at hand and the next 10 years for us look bleak if we can’t manage on our own.
This is long but at least some of it is worth the watch if you don’t know the story of the demographics and how seriously deficient the numbers of replacements are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w05QgHwq8Ig&t=590s
It seems to me that a lot of people would like these jobs - not everyone is suited to sitting at a desk all day.
The real problem is the false stigma that’s been created around them, as though those who do them aren’t ‘smart’ enough to do other types of work. Many of the trades involve high skill levels and require a lot of brain power.
The numbers have probably changed since I heard Mike mention them a couple of years ago .... trades people are retiring & for every 5 that retire, there is only one to replace them.
If people want to WORK, there are good jobs & good money out there. Our HVAC guy was making 80-90k a year with experience. Many of the trades have programs where you go to school (usually a community college) & get your certificate - they pay for it & you work for them for 2 years (or whatever their terms are). No student debt, no graduating an expensive 4 year degree program in some non-technical field only to find it might qualify you to work at Starbucks/s.
The trades are having a hard time finding workers because they pay helpers and apprentices poverty wages.
I HAVE FOLLOWED MIKE ROWE FOR YEARS.
HAVE NEVER HEARD HIM MAKE A FALSE STATEMENT.
TRUMP SHOULD MAKE HIM A SPECIAL ADVISOR TO THE DEPT OF EDUCATION & REOPEN “SHOP” CLASSES.
IMMEDIATELY
Those employers can hire woke Didn't Earn It (DEI) employees and send them through regular DEI training to remind them of how bad white males are. Get women to do it. They're boss babes. They don't need no man. They can smash the "patriarchy".
Mike went to school for a white-collar Communications degree and works in television. It's not about "dirty jobs", it's about jobs that have little value outside of a narrow field. Mike can go interview all those fathers and grandfathers who used to do those jobs and got laid off in the 1970s and 1980s, and ask them why they told their sons and daughters to go in different industries. You can go to yard sales and flea markets all over the country and buy tools that haven't been used in decades.
There are a lot of people who aren't going to learn all those skills that don't translate into anything once they get downsized - and they will get downsized. They're asking themselves, "What's in it for me? Because if it's just a paycheck, I'll find a different way - maybe as an 'influencer' like Mike Rowe did."
Love his mom, she’s great.
and yet employers, including under government contracts, insist they can pay them Starbucks wages.
“AI please unclog my toilet”.
A lot of tradespeople are making very good salaries, and at a relatively young age. This is one of the things Rowe points out in his talks on the subject.
I am being glib, but for quite some time, my position has been:
Dumb kids go to college.
Smart kids end their schooling by age 18 and just start working.
We have FReepers bragging about working at home. If that's the case, it'll be real easy to replace them as soon as the technology is available.
Not all jobs that can be done from home are easily replaceable by AI.
(Many jobs can’t be done from home; but some are done perfectly well from home. I sometimes think there’s a little jealousy on the part of people here who can’t work from home.)
That's a very simplistic and flawed view. The people who stayed at home using their computers:
- planned and forecasted what goods to buy, where to source them, negotiated contracts, etc.
-determined what goods to deliver as well as when and where to deliver them
- funded, updated, and tracked vehicle production and servicing schedules
-determined electricity demands based on new construction as well as infrastructure changes
-etc. etc.
The people working in stores, delivering goods, repairing power lines, or repairing cars benefited from all that. The cost savings to companies discontinuing leases of offices, as well as being able to hire talent from farther away, aided all stakeholders.
Remote work is nothing new. For example, Chrysler opened the Chrysler building in 1930 in Manhattan, New York but never built automobiles in New York City.
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