The skilled trades shortage is real, and TV personality Mike Rowe is doing something about it.
“The skills gap is real,” the Dirty Jobs TV show creator and host Mike Rowe said on a recent Yahoo Finance podcast. “It’s really wide, it’s really dangerous, and now as we enter what looks to be a really new infrastructure build out and a really new economy, it’s going to be the pinch point.”
His effort to fill those positions comes at a critical time.
According to the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades, the U.S. will have a shortage of 1.7 million jobs. The organization says current training programs create about 55 workers for every 100 positions that need to be filled.
“It’s terrifying to see the numbers,” Rowe said.
The skilled trades job gap matters as the US builds the infrastructure that powers AI. Employment of electricians, HVAC technicians, and industrial machinery mechanics is projected to grow at twice, three times, and five times, respectively, the rate for all occupations, the report shows.
By 2034, the research shows Arizona will need 29,000 electricians.
The Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades was founded by BlackRock, Ford, Google, and Carhartt. But the challenge of finding these workers to build out AI infrastructure is evident in who the alliance’s newest members, which includes Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Waymo.
Rowe created the MikeroweWORKS Foundation, funding millions in vocational scholarships, creating what he calls the AI-proof career pipeline for the next generation of electricians and skilled tradespeople.
Rowe points out these are jobs that pay well and are in high demand. He wants to find enough people to fill them.
“The last AI data center I toured was in Plano, Texas, and I met three electricians,” Rowe said. “They were all under 30, all making well over $200,000 a year. But that’s not really the headline. The headline is all three of them had been poached three times in the preceding 18 months. So certainly electricians are in demand.”