There's no "shortage" of workers. Corporations are expecting other people to train their employees past entry level and pay these people with midlevel experience like badly paid unskilled laborers.
Nobody is investing years of their time and large sums of money to get trained up for a shitty job? SURPRISE SURPRISE
If you won't take an average person with no knowledge of your industry and train them to be an expert while on the job, the problem is you, not everybody else.
> Ford’s signature element in its new labor agreement was to get full wages to entry-level workers. But beyond that, he began looking at the labor shortage in trade work, starting with technicians.“Old-timers in our plants were saying, ‘It’s no longer a career, Mr. Farley. Working at Ford is no longer a career.’” He warned that millions of well-paid jobs are going unfilled because they require specialized skills. Putting the salaries for these jobs at $100,000 and above, Farley argued that they require training. “You can’t work on a diesel F-150 if you haven’t been trained for five years, at a minimum five years,” Farley noted. It’s not a demand problem—there’s plenty of work—but a dire shortage of young people choosing and staying in the trades.
I looked into this a bit more, because I wanted to understand how much the Ford CEO's posited solution rested on "you can earn a living if you do a different job!" vs. "You can earn a living at any full-time job at my company".
In 2023, the new agreement Ford made with UAW:
- Increased starting wages by 68%, from $17 to $28 an hour.
- New workers reach the top pay rate in three years, a significant improvement from the previous eight-year progression.
It's incredible how little impact unions have on wages. For decades nobody cared about the wages, then once a non-union shop (Tesla) starts paying significantly more, the Ford CEO takes notice and double wages. One has to wonder if their wages might be higher if it weren't for the UAW, and companies had more flexibility to raise them during strong periods of growth
For this to be the CEO of Ford in particular is interesting because this is part of their founding narrative. Whether it holds up to historical scrutiny isn't something I can answer but the lore is that Henry Ford purposely paid more than market for his laborers with the idea that he'd get his pick and then those workers would then buy Fords with that money because they knew they were the best cars built by the best workers with the most experience because they stayed at Ford their whole careers.
Seems like a good time to mention my old stand-by:
There is no such thing as a labor shortage. There may very well be a shortage of qualified people willing to work under the conditions and for the compensation a company would like to provide.
When stated that way you can see that there are several levers to pull, the most obvious being compensation.
The prospect of working on something that profits from society steaming full speed ahead towards the climate catastrophe (and you being at the forefront) or in the best case being obsolete in a few years as we ramp down fossils should also make the thinking person pause.
> But beyond that, he began looking at the labor shortage in trade work, starting with technicians.
It's amazing how there can be labour shortages, yet companies still don't pay people a living wage. I thought the market was supposed to be all based around supply and demand. This just shows how out of touch these CEO's are.
They should work a year on the lowest salaried employee of their company for a while.
Finally, someone at the top realizing how unrealistic new career paths are. They must have a solid step on a career ladder. This includes the daily cashflow to stick with it and actually make it to that 2nd step. If you continue to jerk them around with minimum wage jobs, everyone will regret it.
It is ridiculous to have American workers and Chinese workers doing essentially the same job, at the same quality, while their salaries differ enormously.
American (and European) automotive companies will never be able to compete long term in any market which allows competition between Chinese and American (or European) cars.
The labor of an auto worker is not worth that much and only by banning competition can American auto manufacturing survive short term.
Eh... "ridiculous" is a matter of perspective. If you're running a country and you want your people to be well-compensated and live meaningful lives, shuffling the hand in their favour is not violating some physical law. Countries restrain naked competition all the time to benefit their people.
To me it seems much more ridiculous to expect Western citizens to accept a degradation in living standards for the abstract notion of some universal economic efficiency. Though you can easily argue we're headed that way, it's mostly because of government capture by multinational corps.
And, of course, they have had factories moving to other countries like Vietnam. They're part of the same trend of factories constantly chasing after low wages.
It's interesting that myself, and a non-insignificant number of other people, would take an option like this if it were legal. It would certainly make vacations much more affordable to be able to bring my home with me and not pay for an AirBNB/hotel + rental car/ubers!
However, to someone for whom rent is an onerous expense, vans and box trucks are prohibitively expensive, especially when you consider 10 year TCO.
Why would I learn my father’s trade when I can see all day in TikTok all of these people doing GRWM with fancy fits and making matcha lattes at their super fancy corporate offices, or others becoming rich by having enough likes and followers, or others having lambos from day trading?
Now that I see other peoples idealized lives 24/7, I want THAT.
In the meantime I will work a 3 times/week 4 hour shift at Starbies.
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Related:
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“Whop’s 2024 survey gathered insights from 910 U.S. Gen Alpha across the U.S. aged between 12-15 years old. Participants selected all careers they were aspiring towards.
This article is wild. I love it when rich people tell you 1) they've been asleep for a decade and 2) their politics are insane.
he was especially struck by stories from young factory employees. Many of them said they could not support themselves by working at Ford alone. “When I met with my entry factory workers, they were saying [they] had to have three jobs.”
So, the thing people have been saying in public for 10 years, is a surprise to you?
Farley described a revelation about the erosion of what blue-collar work used to represent—stability, pride, and a single income that could support a family.
Dimon called America the “bastion of freedom, arsenal of democracy,” and argued that the country had “gotten bogged down and made a lot of mistakes in how to grow our economy for the benefit of all Americans.” He urged Farley to keep fighting against what he called America becoming a “nation of compliance and box-checking.”
There's so much here. "arsenal of democracy" is a wild phrase considering how many nations we've destroyed in the name of (but not by actually supporting) democracy (to say nothing of our current administration being anti-democracy). "gotten bogged down" - by what, corporate profits and CEO bonuses? All the money was flying in your face so you couldn't see the 50-year downward trend in wages and upward trend in cost of living, healthcare, education? And then "keep fighting against what he called America becoming a “nation of compliance and box-checking." - so, after corporations have destroyed the country's middle and lower classes (and environment), deregulation will save us?!?
He warned that millions of well-paid jobs are going unfilled because they require specialized skills. Putting the salaries for these jobs at $100,000 and above, Farley argued that they require training.
This part is amazing too. He's actually admitting that there is a wage gap. I mean, why would anyone do 5 years of training to become a diesel mechanic at $65k/yr, when they can do a 2 week bootcamp and become a JavaScript programmer for $120k?
He said there’s a general attitude of frustration, a sense of “How the hell do we fix this?”
A whole lotta people have been shouting the answers for decades. You haven't been listening because you were all too busy stuffing profits down your bank account.
30 comments
[ 2.4 ms ] story [ 55.4 ms ] threadThere's no "shortage" of workers. Corporations are expecting other people to train their employees past entry level and pay these people with midlevel experience like badly paid unskilled laborers.
Nobody is investing years of their time and large sums of money to get trained up for a shitty job? SURPRISE SURPRISE
If you won't take an average person with no knowledge of your industry and train them to be an expert while on the job, the problem is you, not everybody else.
I looked into this a bit more, because I wanted to understand how much the Ford CEO's posited solution rested on "you can earn a living if you do a different job!" vs. "You can earn a living at any full-time job at my company".
In 2023, the new agreement Ford made with UAW:
- Increased starting wages by 68%, from $17 to $28 an hour.
- New workers reach the top pay rate in three years, a significant improvement from the previous eight-year progression.
- Top wage increased to over $40 an hour.
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2014/01/ford-doubles-min...
[1] https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/
[2] https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=...
There is no such thing as a labor shortage. There may very well be a shortage of qualified people willing to work under the conditions and for the compensation a company would like to provide.
When stated that way you can see that there are several levers to pull, the most obvious being compensation.
Ford's profit margin was 1.7%. Lots of innovative/productive American companies since 1970 for workers to aspire to = the enterprise can't continue.
It's amazing how there can be labour shortages, yet companies still don't pay people a living wage. I thought the market was supposed to be all based around supply and demand. This just shows how out of touch these CEO's are.
They should work a year on the lowest salaried employee of their company for a while.
American (and European) automotive companies will never be able to compete long term in any market which allows competition between Chinese and American (or European) cars.
The labor of an auto worker is not worth that much and only by banning competition can American auto manufacturing survive short term.
To me it seems much more ridiculous to expect Western citizens to accept a degradation in living standards for the abstract notion of some universal economic efficiency. Though you can easily argue we're headed that way, it's mostly because of government capture by multinational corps.
And, of course, they have had factories moving to other countries like Vietnam. They're part of the same trend of factories constantly chasing after low wages.
However, to someone for whom rent is an onerous expense, vans and box trucks are prohibitively expensive, especially when you consider 10 year TCO.
Follow the money.
Now that I see other peoples idealized lives 24/7, I want THAT.
In the meantime I will work a 3 times/week 4 hour shift at Starbies.
——- Related: ——-
“Whop’s 2024 survey gathered insights from 910 U.S. Gen Alpha across the U.S. aged between 12-15 years old. Participants selected all careers they were aspiring towards.
1.YouTuber (32%) 2.TikTok creator (21%) 3.Doctor/nurse (20%) 4.Mobile app/video game developer (19%) 5.Entrepreneur (17%) 6.Artist (16%) 7.Sports athlete (15%) 8.Professional online streamer (15%) 9.Musician (14%) 10.Teacher (14%)”