Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Jim Farley said the nationwide mechanic shortage at the automaker’s dealerships has hovered around 5,000, a gap that drives up labor costs and delays repairs.
“Customers are feeling the pain,” Farley said in an interview.
The shortage is part of a broader U.S. skilled-labor crisis. The skilled workforce is aging rapidly while demand for trades workers multiplies because of surging data center construction and investment in advanced manufacturing. According to estimates from Associated Builders and Contractors, the construction industry needs to add an estimated 349,000 net new workers this year alone to meet demand, fueled in part by a skyrocketing need for electricians.
Big employers and philanthropies have responded with roughly $400 million in new programs announced this year. The latest is a $90 million Bloomberg Philanthropies effort launching this week focused on helping more high-school students land jobs in the trades. The effort includes a partnership with Ford in Detroit, where Bloomberg and the automaker are each contributing $2.5 million, partly to fund new auto-repair bays for high schoolers. The goal is to train 300 auto mechanics over the next three years who will be eligible to start jobs directly after high school with Ford dealerships.
“Most of our technicians are older — it is a real dilemma,” Farley said. This year alone, the automaker said it is spending $300 million on efforts aimed at filling vital jobs.
Bloomberg Philanthropies said its latest spending will support similar efforts in half a dozen states, including classroom renovations and paid work stipends for student apprentices.
The Lowe’s Foundation has pledged $250 million to revitalize the trades, with most of that funding announced this spring. The goal is to train 250,000 people by 2035, including hiring more instructors and creating mobile classrooms in rural areas. The retailer’s foundation is also spending money on a three-part TV series to highlight stories of workers pursuing careers in the skilled trades.
“Within our society, we’ve created a belief there’s only one pathway to be successful, and that is you have to go to college, you have to get a four-year degree,” said Marvin Ellison, Lowe’s chief executive. “There are multiple pathways.”
Students seeking a foothold in the trades often face wait lists or don’t know how to navigate their options, said Claire Chamberlain, global head of social impact at the BlackRock Foundation, the money manager’s philanthropic arm.
“There are interested workers, there are would-be workers, and jobs on the other side,” Chamberlain said. “It’s the training systems that are not offering the capacity that industry demands.”
BlackRock announced earlier this year that it is spending $100 million to support the skilled trades, including efforts in Texas, where there is steep demand for electricians as data centers crop up there. The goal is to help train some 12,000 electricians over three years in Texas.
The Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, a union, has agreed to set aside 75 apprenticeship slots for high-school graduates who are trained through the Bloomberg program. The union also plans to develop carpentry classwork in some high schools that don’t yet have it, plus expand summer boot camps for high schoolers. The council expects 60 participants to enroll in such boot camps this summer.
The goal is to get more people into the trades at a younger age, said Anthony Abrantes, a New Jersey-based executive board member with the union. Demand for apprenticeships it offers has far outstripped supply in recent years, but often interest has been strongest among people making mid-career shifts, he noted.
Getting students trained starting in high school also tends to produce workers with the skills and commitment to stick around for the long haul, according to Abrantes.
“In a 30-year career, we’ve lost youth for the most productive time of their career,” he said.