Posted on 11/13/2025 1:54:06 AM PST by know.your.why
“We are in trouble in our country. We are not talking about this enough,” Farley told host Monica Langley. “We have over a million openings in critical jobs, emergency services, trucking, factory workers, plumbers, electricians, and tradesmen. It’s a very serious thing.”
While President Donald Trump has centered his economic agenda on bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., there remains a gap between the number of factory jobs open and the number of people willing to fill them.
There were more than 400,000 manufacturing jobs open as of August, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, despite a 4.3% unemployment rate, which is higher than in previous years. A 2024 study from the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte also found more than half of the 200 manufacturing firms surveyed said recruiting and retaining workers was their top struggle.
Yet, Farley said jobs in the trades like those at Ford “made our country what it is,” and allowed people like his grandfather—who worked on the company’s flagship Model T and was employee 389 at the company—to have good lives.
Farley said the company is doing better on wages. It got rid of the lowest tier of its wage scale, and agreed to give workers a 25% salary bump over four years as part of its agreement with the United Auto Workers union in 2023.
Still, part of the problem for the shortage of manufacturing jobs is the lack of education and training, according to Farley. He noted, for example, learning to take a diesel engine out of a Ford Super Duty truck takes at least five years. The current system is not meeting the standard, he added.
Maybe he needs to ask why they are not being hired instead of saying no one is available.
But the Left keep telling us we need to de-populate.....
Maybe they should just hire out of high school people who have basic mechanical knowledge they learned in school and then train for the rest of the knowledge?
American business failed by not respecting on the job training, but expected people to hit the ground running after going in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
People probably aren’t willing to put the time into learning skills if they think the job will be moved overseas or they will be replaced by a foreigner.
All in blue sh&t-hole states(?)
Around here the problem is drugs. I hear from employers that even the ones who know the job can’t pass a drug test. It is easier to draw welfare and sit around smoking dope.
Well this is super news for people like me that love high tech manufacturing. Means wages will stay premium for us long timers. I make rocket engine parts in Huntsville Alabama and my advice to anyone thats a gear head...stay away from Huntsville! Leave all this great work to me! :)
In the old days, businesses had apprenticeships which worked very well. It’s worked since the beginning of time.
The other thing that may be happening is when manufacturing went overseas, the skilled labor here un the US were forced to find other work-like learning to code.
Or a robot or AI.
If my recent experience getting my 2021 Chevy Colorado repaired is any example I would say this: if the cars/trucks were better designed and built at the factory there would be no need for hundreds of mechanics at each dealership doing ‘warrantee’ work. Parts quality and availability is also a big issue.
It sounds like a great opportunity for mechanically inclined people, not trouble.
How hard is it to work on an EV?
No, but you do have apprenticeship programs in every one of your UAW plants. Unfortunately, nepotism prevails. It's almost impossible to get hired in as an apprentice unless you have UAW connections.
Here in S.E. Michigan, many family owned shops shut down following the Carter recession. These were shops where workers could get experience in the various trades then move on to the Big 3 with the required years of experience, and apply for their UAW Journeyman's cards.
Sounds like poor design issues. Too many CAD nerds who never used a screwdriver, wrench or worked on a car are designing these complex beasts.
They work around these designs by assembling a vehicle as major components. The engine/transmission go on the frame and then the body is placed on top. That's fine on the assembly line with custom tooling, equipment and cranes but they make it insanely hard to just pull the engine once the body is in place.
They've designed around union workers and outsourcing. Major components made in other countries and designed in such a way as to minimize the labor of overpaid union workers here in the US who put together major sub-assemblies.
I have a Chevy truck that has plastic adapters for the heater hoses to attach to the heater core. The hose is attached to the adapters with hose clamps. Why the need for the plastic adapters? Because you can push the hose onto the heater core. No tools required. That tells me Pedro in MX is putting the adapters on the pre-cut hoses with hose clamps. Attaching the other end to the waterpump with hose clamps and then when the engine and body are assembled by overpaid union workers, they just snap the hoses on the heater core. No tools needed, very quick. Same with electrical. The engine wiring is already attached to the engine in MX and union workers just plug things into the body.
Same as interior panels being almost exclusively snap together. Whatever it takes to cater to people who make $30-40/hr for 25 years and then get paid that same full time rate with full benefits until they die, another 25-45 years. Can't have them manually tightening hose clamps. They make too much money for that.
I had one of those plastic adapters break off from being old and brittle. I couldn't get the little un-snap tool up under the adapter so I had to use a jig saw blade held in Vise Grips and saw through the adapter in two places so I could split it in half to remove it. Took a while but hey, Mr Union guy was able to put it together in three seconds and I'm sure their tasks are broken down into seconds. All those seconds add up to minutes which add up to hours. Save several seconds enough times and it all adds up.
Screw the people who have to work on them later. Hey, why can't we find mechanics?
AMEN
Drugs are not helpful
“there is evidence to suggest a correlation between heavy cannabis use and a decrease in motivation, especially in adolescents and long-term dependent users”
Mike Rowe has been beating this drum for years. Obama stupidly pulled money out of trade schools to give to the 4 year universities when we need much more of the former and don’t need/can’t employ all the college grads. We are struggling to produce 2 new attack submarines per year when we need to be producing 4 or 5 times that many. Why? A shortage of skilled shipyard workers.
We badly need more plumbers/welders/electricians/carpenters, etc etc. There are plenty of jobs available, the pay is good, you don’t have to go into debt to get trained up and the training period is much shorter. We need to train more and get the word out what great opportunities there are for skilled workers.
“Ford CEO says he has 5,000 open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries from the shortage of manually skilled workers: ‘We are in trouble in our country’”
Oh PLEASE, who wants to get their hands dirty when we all can simply ‘code’?
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