Ford CEO Jim Farley is raising eyebrows about the lack of qualified mechanics for the auto industry. Ford itself has FIVE THOUSAND mechanic openings and is unable to fill those positions.

Ford has been unable to fill some 5,000 openings for mechanics despite offering a salary of $120,000 a year — prompting the company’s chief executive to warn of a dire shortage of skilled tradespeople in the US.

“We are in trouble in our country. We are not talking about this enough,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said on an episode of the “Office Hours: Business Edition” podcast published earlier this week.

“We have over a million openings in critical jobs, emergency services, trucking, factory workers, plumbers, electricians and tradesmen.”

Here’s the thing, A starting salary of $120K a year is amazing. The PROBLEM is, the lack of qualified candidates. Additionally, the problem is the education in the K-12 schools and the fact that mechanic, plumbing, HVAC, and electric jobs among others are STILL considered less than!

Folks, there’s a gigantic push to build AI centers and such. Who do you think is going to build them? Who do you think is going to make sure the HVAC and plumbing in those centers works correctly? Who do you think is going to make sure the electric is installed so that the lights and systems turn on and off when needed? 

That’s right. The folks who have learned a trade. Except long ago, in the 1990’s in fact, many schools including my WY hometown school, did away with classes that helped steer students towards the trades. 

And now, the schools are offering STEM. But are they offering auto and mechanic classes? Not enough are, even in the rural areas that understand how critical these skills are.

Quite frankly, there’s an education problem that is impacting our workforce of plumbers, electricians, and mechanics. As we’ve written before, the current report card on too many of our public schools is beyond dismal. This doesn’t help.

As of 2024, only 27% of US public school eighth graders reached proficiency in math on the Nation’s Report Card.

That is not a workforce-ready pipeline; it is a warning.

If three-quarters of today’s graduates can’t read or do math at a middle school level, the millions of jobs Farley is desperate to fill — in automotive technology, advanced manufacturing, construction, aviation maintenance, and beyond — will remain out of their reach forever.

America does not lack good jobs.

It lacks a K–12 system capable of preparing students to seize them.

The trade schools across the country are working hard to fill that gap. Schools such as WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming are working hard to recruit students, train them, and then open the door to their future employer. 

But there aren’t enough of them. And the lack of that type of educational offering on a K-12 scale with the classes along with the fact that too many can’t read or do math is a big roadblock. Mike Rowe has been sounding the alarm for quite some time now. 

Every single automotive company in America is struggling to hire technicians, and the problem – (in spite of what you’ll likely read in the comments,) has nothing to do with the pay, the benefits, or the working conditions. These jobs offer a clear path to a six-figure career, with little to no college debt. In part, the problem is mathematical – this year, 37,000 new techs were hired across the country. Unfortunately, 76,000 retired. That’s a 2:1 ration, which is actually pretty good, compared to the 5:2 ratio in most of the construction trades. But along with a lack of warm bodies, there’s a lack of interest in the work itself. A will gap, in other words, combined with a skill gap. Happily, I think that’s about to change. Unfortunately, at the expense of a colossal upheaval.

~Snip

Last month, for instance, in Plano, Texas, I toured a Data Center. It was overwhelming, and in some ways, a little unsettling. But I met with a few electricians while I was there, who told me they’d all been poached from different companies at least three times in the last two years. These guys were all under 30, and all making well over $200K a year. They constantly get offers from the competition for ever-increasing salaries, because the need for electricians is acute, and their jobs are not threatened by robots or AI. (Not yet, anyway. And probably not in our lifetimes.) The same is true of welders, HVAC techs, plumbers, and so forth.

All you have to do is look around you. 

It isn’t just mechanics, plumbers, or electricians. It’s construction. Architects can DRAW a house, but it takes someone versed in construction to know how to BUILD it. Want to drive an EV on a nicely paved road? Thank a road construction worker. 

One of my marketing verticals is auto repair shops. I have clients across the country and their single largest business challenge is finding mechanics who 1) want to work and 2) aren’t on drugs.

Then again, my wife is a restaurant manager and their single largest business…

— Jon DiPietro (@jondipietronh) November 14, 2025

There’s a shortage across the trades. It’s an education shortage and yes, there is a component of the willingness (or lack thereof) to work shortage. 

While Democrats preen about shutting the government down and the Republicans talk about AI and other things, one thing they are ignoring at their own individual peril as well as across this country. If you can’t find someone skilled in trades to fix your plumbing or leaky roof, or keep that plane or train in good shape, or keep your favorite EV vehicle or AI data center running, you are stuck like Chuck. 

Feature Photo Credit: mechanic working on car via iStock, cropped and modified