Mike Rowe says US in a ‘modern-day Manhattan project’ after scrapping shop class — is it time to ditch your desk job?
With billions of dollars pouring in to fuel America’s contributions to the ongoing Artificial Intelligence race, Mike Rowe believes we are living through what he calls a “modern-day Manhattan Project.”
However, America’s AI efforts face their own set of hurdles, including a lack of skilled tradespeople to build the energy and data center infrastructure needed to power AI.
“When we took shop class out of high school, we sent a pretty clear message to the workforce,” Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs, told Fox News. “We put our thumb on the scale, we made a real judgement call. Consequently, we have 7.6 million open jobs right now in those [skilled labor] fields.”
And Rowe isn’t the only one ringing this alarm bell. Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton — often called the “Godfather of AI” — also recommended blue collar skills as a way to prepare for the age of automation.
“I’d say it’s going to be a long time before [AI] is as good at physical manipulation as us, and so a good bet would be to be a plumber,” Hinton said on The Diary of a CEO podcast.
As more experts urge Americans to rethink their career paths, could now be the moment to consider rolling up your sleeves and going to trade school? Here’s what you need to know.
Perhaps the best reason to consider a career in the trades is the projected shortage of skilled labor workers in the near future.
Nearly 1.9 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled over the next decade, according to a study from the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte. Meanwhile, America could be short about 550,000 plumbers by 2027, according to The Hill.
Put simply, there’s growing demand for blue collar workers while white collar staffers face dwindling demand and potential layoffs.
As a consequence, skilled trade workers have more bargaining power to achieve better wages. Between 2020 and 2024, average wages across the skilled trades sectors grew 20%, according to McKinsey & Company.
Experienced electricians, elevator installers, construction managers and HVAC technicians can earn $100,000 or more per year, according to the Philadelphia Technician Training Institute. And the fact that these trades do not require an advanced college degree also reduces the burden on young people willing to acquire these skills.