America’s skilled trades shortage has major employers sounding the alarm as companies face mounting demand for workers needed to build, maintain and power the country’s infrastructure.
mikeroweWORKS Foundation CEO Mike Rowe joined FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on “Varney & Co.” to discuss the widening skilled labor gap, the impact of artificial intelligence and the growing push to steer more Americans toward trade careers.
A new national report from the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades found the U.S. is expected to face roughly 1.7 million skilled trades job openings each year through 2035, while training programs are producing only about 55 workers for every 100 needed.
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Rowe cautioned that the shortage is not identical across every occupation or state, but said the broader problem is showing up throughout the trades.
“So what you’re seeing across dozens and dozens of trades are shortages that are more or less universal. But individually, trade to trade, state to state, there’s variance,” Rowe said.
For Rowe, the urgency is increasingly evident in conversations with corporate leaders.
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“Every week I get a call, either from a CEO of some big company or some consequential industry. And they’re freaking out. This workforce thing is the problem of the decade, and it’s not gonna go away until we come at it from a different angle,” he said.
At the same time, Rowe said attitudes toward the trades appear to be changing, driven by the rising cost of four-year degrees and concerns about how AI could reshape the job market.
“Just through my foundation alone, the demand is up 10x over the same time a year ago,” Rowe said. “So something has definitely changed out there in the ether, and I suspect AI has a lot to do with it.”
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