Speaking to Fox and Friends, TV personality and mikeroweWorks Foundation CEO Mike Rowe discussed the opportunity for blue-collar work in America.
This conversation is prompted after the President Donald Trump’s announcement of $92 billion in Pennsylvania to build AI data centers.
"I think for the first time, in a mainstream way, we can say with absolute certainty the money is there, the workforce is not. And so, somebody somewhere needs to ring this alarm bell and do something to reinvigorate the trades on a national level, otherwise those seven and a half million open jobs right now are going to double,” Rowe reports.
Rowe also emphasized the importance of young kids knowing about these trade opportunities.
"What I hope the president will do is carve aside a little bit of the money that's being invested into all of this new energy driven construction and say let's earmark it to make a more persuasive case, not just to the workers but to the parents of the young kids who are in the eighth and ninth grade, right now. You've got to start there."
Describing some of the different blue-collar job openings, Rowe explained that the Maritime Industrial Base is trying to hire one hundred and forty thousand tradespeople to work with submarines.
"They've got a massive order of submarines to deliver to the U.S. navy. They can't find the tradespeople. This is happening in automotive, it's happening in construction, it's happening in energy, it's happening everywhere," Rowe says.
He continues by saying that he is not an alarmist, but he would be ringing a bell if he were.
"Even at the Aspen Ideas Festival of all places, you've got guys like Larry Fink who are running 12 trillion dollars out of BlackRock saying we need 500 thousand electricians,” Rowe states.
