WITHOUT FOLKS TO FIX WHAT'S BROKEN ... WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Ford CEO laments he can’t fill over 5,000 mechanic jobs paying over $120K per year: He says, “We are in trouble in our country”

Click here: https://nypost.com/2025/11/14/business/ford-ceo-jim-farley-says-he-cant-fill-5000-mechanic-jobs-paying-120k-per-year-we-are-in-trouble-in-our-country/

Along with all auto manufacturers, Ford has tried, and has not been able to fill vacancies for 5,000 openings for Ford mechanics alone. Understand this; there are thousands and thousands of job vacancies across the country all paying over $120K a year for mechanics fresh out of school.

Ford CEO Jim Farley says, “We are in trouble in our country. We are not talking about this enough.” He said this while guest on the podcast “Office Hours”. He continued, “We have over a million openings in critical jobs, emergency services, trucking, factory workers, plumbers, electricians and tradesmen.” Farley went on saying, “It’s a very serious thing.”

A $120,000 paycheck is roughly twice the average annual American salary, according to the Social Security Administration.

Farley, in his interview was heard to say, “It takes about five years to learn the skills needed to pull a diesel engine out of a Ford Super Duty truck — and the country isn’t training enough people to do it.” He fumed, “We do not have trade schools.”

Earlier this year, in an effort to bring more mechanics into the field, Ford Motor Company rolled out a $4 million initiative to fund scholarship for auto technicians.

Farley said, “We are not investing in educating a next generation of people like my grandfather who had nothing, who built a middle class life and a future for his family.”

Eli S. Glendure, Phd. is an analyst with the Cornell Center for Labor Research. He said, “The truth is that the entire automotive industry is missing bodies, warm blooded qualified service technicians who can perform routine maintenance and repairs on motorcycles, cars, vans, trucks and everything on the road.”

The mechanic shortage at Ford is representative of a broader crisis hitting manufacturing and the skilled trades. Anybody who makes or fixes anything is a body in short supply and prices for repair and maintenance are skyrocketing as dealerships and other firms are fighting over the few skilled technicians available.

Recently in Denver, Colorado a battle broke out between two HVAC firms. They fought for a young man who had just graduated from an HVAC trade school. The battle ended with the winning firm, Same Day Service Co., paying the man $160K a year with an impressive benefit package.

As of August this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics counted more than 400,000 open manufacturing and maintenance positions — this despite 4.3% unemployment.
Last year, the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte surveyed 200 manufacturing firms and found recruiting and retention topped the list of challenges for more than half of them.

The automotive industry alone faces an annual shortfall of about 37,000 trained technicians, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association. The BLS projects an average of 67,800 openings for automotive service technicians and mechanics each year through 2033.

Ford’s Farley sounded incredulous about the dire shortage, adding: “A bay with a lift and tools and no one to work in it — are you kidding me? Nope.” Part of the problem is demographics. Baby boomers are retiring from the trades faster than millennials and Gen Zers are entering them.

This story has been decades in the making and the solution is not a quick or easy one as parents of GenZ and younger are still suffering the effects of decades of Higher Education propaganda. They remain dedicated to pushing their children through college regardless of field of study or cost.

It is found that the average cost of a 3-4 year trade school through graduation ranges from $23K to $45K while the cost of 3-4 years in college ranges from $58K to $80K. Add to this the fact that the trade school grad will earn an average annual salary of $121K while the Bachelor Degreed 4-5 year college graduate will earn an average annual salary of $52K.

So, when your car needs to be serviced, just realize that the guy fixing it is more than likely making a lot more than you are.