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.
Labor shortage or wage shortage?
My advice to coders is forget about languages.
All webapps do is to generate HTML, JavaScript and CSS, that’s it! Master those things, and the underlying protocols and understand fully how they work.
As far as the languages themselves, it’s important to know what each one is good at and what it isn’t good at.
And now, another skill you will need is the ability to evaluate LLMs, and which ones are best suited for your particular requirements, based on abilities and the cost of utilizing the models.
Only problem with being a craftsman is they don’t want to pay and when the economy goes south construction stops
We are definitely heading towards very interesting times, I sure am glad I am set to retire in a few years. I don’t envy people in the 20s and 30s right now.
No the trouble we’re having is people coming to work on time, ready to work, and can pass a drug test.
My son starts them at 30 and lunch... and they learn a trade.
Construction site a very dangerous place.
We’re not coders.
12 foot of black pipe and a valve.
Ever see what happens after a gas leak?
That’s why I get paid so much.
I retired 2022
With all these robots fabricating everything, whose gonna buy it if everyone is unemployed
Add to that the endless chasm of Youtube videos with previews showing a scowling, bug-eyed, constipated-looking “expert” with an all-caps title demanding viewers “NEVER DO THIS YOURSELF...”
I work around bright people who have never changed their own oil, fixed an appliance, painted a shed, changed brake pads, etc. “Just pay the professional to do it”...
Professionals learned how to do it. So can anyone else with proper effort... particularly those who don’t have money to throw away at every turn. This world is full of people who live to tell others what they can’t do.
I did concrete forms and roofing before getting into my field.
In the end, you do the job you can find if it means putting food on the table
“- 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”
Every single example you listed will most likely be replaced by AI.
Want to be an expert on concrete?
It’s white, it’s hard, and it’s cracks.😁
Want to be an expert on asphalt?
It’s black
It’s hot
Don’t touch it
AI is nothing but a bunch of Indians pretending to be AI.
https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/business/27127-builder-ai-collapse-700-indian-engineers-behind-fake-ai-exposed.html
As for replacing those things with programming - good luck. Several companies have already tried replacing them with programming only to suffer catastrophic results.
I learned from this video that we are in dire need of welders and solderers, tool and die makers, metal fabricators, and machinists.
I Tried To Make Something In America (The Smarter Scrubber Experiment) - Smarter Every Day 308
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTGwcHQfLY
“- 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”
A just machine
To make big decisions
Programmed by fellas
With compassion and vision
We’ll be clean
When their work is done
We’ll be eternally free
Yes, and eternally young
What a beautiful world
This will be
What a glorious time
To be free
Let me offer a new scenario. What If you could purchase a robot for 100k to do grueling farm chores, but you would then have to pay out 5k a year in repairs and maintenance, would that be preferable to hiring a human hand ( on strictly monetary basis) ?
Absolutely. The initial purchase price would be an immediate tax deduction and the yearly cost would be expensed. There would be no payroll tax on the maintenance fees. It would be worth the amount you suggest even if the work performed had to be process driven meaning a scheduled pattern with no initiative required on the part of the robot. It would only have to behave as a robo vacuum or lawn mower to be valuable.
Exactly!
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