The editors of the Wall Street Journal give their opinion on why Ford can’t find mechanics:
Corporate CEOs are keeping their heads down these days, lest they get chopped off by the Trump Administration. So last week’s remarks by Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley deserve credit for candor, as well as for the public service of telling politicians a hard truth about the American labor force.
Mr. Farley told a podcast last week that he can’t find enough skilled mechanics to run his auto plants. Specifically, Ford can’t fill 5,000 mechanic jobs that pay $120,000 a year.
“We are in trouble in our country. We are not talking about this enough,” Mr. Farley said. “We have over a million openings in critical jobs, emergency services, trucking, factory workers, plumbers, electricians and tradesmen.” He said Ford is struggling to hire mechanics at salaries that Ivy League grads might envy.
“A bay with a lift and tools and no one to work in it—are you kidding me? Nope,” Mr. Farley lamented. “We do not have trade schools” in this country. He’s right to a large degree. Few high schools teach trades these days. Community colleges are mostly remedial high school education, and government worker-training programs have poor results.
Government subsidies for college and graduate education have encouraged the young to go to college even though they might be better off learning a trade. This has created a skills mismatch in the labor market. Unemployment among young college grads is increasing, while employers struggle to hire skilled manufacturing workers, technicians and contractors.
I wish there were more in the way of details being offered. $120,000/year is twice the median wage and three times the median wage for automotive service technicians/mechanics. That sounds like a pretty good wage to me. Why is Ford having problems?
I also wonder whether the editors are making a pitch for vocational training, importing more workers with the required skills, or both? Or something else?
All I can add is that we’ve been propagandizing people for 30 years that they need to go to college and the public subsidies for doing that have been massive. Maybe it’s time to alter course. Like turning an ocean liner it’s not something you can do on a dime.
