I’m a reporter with the New York Post working on a piece about Ford CEO Jim Farley’s recent comments that Ford has roughly 5,000 unfilled mechanic jobs paying around $120,000, and his broader warning that “we are in trouble in our country” because of a shortage of manually skilled workers. I’m looking to speak with experts on workforce development and the skilled trades about a few questions: • How accurate is Farley’s diagnosis of a shortage in trades like mechanics, factory workers, electricians, etc.? • Is this primarily a pipeline/training problem (trade schools, apprenticeships, curriculum), or more about wages, conditions and job quality? • Are trade schools and community colleges actually teaching the skills employers like Ford say they need, or is there a mismatch? • What, if anything, policymakers and industry should be doing differently to close the gap over the next 5–10 years.

I co-own Wright Home Services in San Antonio, and I've been in home services for 20+ years--we're literally dealing with Farley's exact problem but in HVAC and electrical. Here's what's actually killing us that nobody talks about: **the retention gap is worse than the hiring gap**. We can get people in the door at decent wages, but they wash out in 90 days because they're not prepared for the physical reality and customer-facing pressure of the work. Trade schools teach them how to wire a panel or charge refrigerant, but nobody's teaching them how to crawl through a 130-degree San Antonio attic in July while a homeowner hovers asking why it costs $8,000. That's where we lose them--not on the technical side. The real fix I've seen work: **hybrid apprenticeships where they're employed from day one, not after graduation**. We started bringing guys on payroll while they finish certifications, pairing them with our senior techs on actual service calls instead of waiting for them to "complete training." They see the money immediately, understand the customer service component, and we can filter out who actually likes the work before investing heavily. Their dropout rate dropped by half because they know what they're signing up for. Here's the part that'll piss people off: wages aren't the main issue for *new* workers--it's the 3-5 year guys leaving for $5K more at companies that'll burn them out in 18 months. Ford's $120K jobs probably have the same churn problem. If Farley wants those 5,000 positions filled and *kept*, he needs to publish retention rates alongside starting pay, because I guarantee his real problem is backfilling the same roles every year.

Farley's not exaggerating. Anyone who works with physical infrastructure or hardware is seeing the same thing — from auto mechanics to electricians, plumbers, and even the people who hand-build our medical devices. There's been a long, slow cultural drift away from the trades. For years, we told kids the only respectable path was a four-year degree and a laptop. Now we're shocked that no one wants to pull an engine, run conduit, or troubleshoot a hydraulic line for a living. It's partly a pipeline problem, but it's also about narrative. These jobs quietly moved into the $100K+ range in many markets, yet they're still treated as "backup plans." Trade schools and community colleges do train solid workers, but the demand is outpacing the flow of new talent, and in some cases the curriculum lags behind what employers like Ford actually need on the shop floor. The irony is that these roles are among the safest from AI. A robot can help diagnose; it can't climb into a cramped engine bay and improvise a fix on a 12-year-old truck with three undocumented prior repairs. Over the next 5-10 years, I think we need three things: much earlier exposure to hands-on work in high school, modernized apprenticeships co-designed with employers, and a serious reframing of trades as high-skill, high-status careers — not consolation prizes. If we don't, we'll keep discovering that six-figure jobs are going unfilled while we argue about AI taking everyone's work. —Pouyan Golshani, MD | Interventional Radiologist & Founder, GigHz and Guide.MD | https://gighz.com

Farley's assessment aligns with what I see across industries that rely on skilled labor. The gap in mechanics, electricians, and other trades isn't new, but it's growing. Many of these roles require hands-on experience and practical problem-solving, skills that aren't always cultivated in traditional academic paths. The result is a workforce shortage that impacts operations and innovation across sectors. This shortage is both a pipeline and a job quality issue. While more trade schools and apprenticeships exist than in the past, many programs fail to mirror the real-world demands employers face. At the same time, wages, benefits, and career pathways haven't kept pace with the skill level required. For a $120,000 mechanic role to remain unfilled, it signals barriers beyond training. Policymakers and industry need to coordinate. Expanding apprenticeships, aligning curricula with employer needs, and creating clear, attractive career paths are essential. Employers also need to improve retention by investing in work environments, tools, and professional development. Over the next decade, the shortage won't resolve without systemic action. If we can combine practical training, competitive compensation, and career mobility, the skilled trades can become a respected, viable path again. Without that, shortages will continue to constrain growth across multiple industries.