General Motors CEO Mary Barra says the country has a 'societal problem' with skilled trades, and GM is putting nearly $200 million behind training and facilities aimed at young workers.
Barra said on Fortune's 'Titans and Disruptors of Industry' podcast that skilled-trade jobs could offer Gen Z a more 'AI-proof' path and still lead to six-figure pay. She said a technician could make '$80,000 to $90,000' and potentially more depending on hours worked.
The company said its spending is going toward community-based training, upgraded manufacturing facilities, technical centers and dealership service bays. GM also placed approximately 90 new skilled trades apprentices across its U.S. manufacturing divisions in April.
Barra said the labor shortage is broader than GM. An estimated 2.1 million skilled trades jobs could go unfilled nationally by 2030, according to the Alliance for America's Skilled Trades, a coalition formed over the summer by BlackRock, Carhartt, Ford Motor Company and Google.
She pointed to electricians in particular, saying demand is rising in part because of the data center boom tied to AI expansion. More than 300,000 new electricians are estimated to be needed over the next decade.
Barra's view is rooted in her own background. She said her father worked at GM for 39 years as a die maker, and she began her career at General Motors Institute, where she worked as a co-op student on the assembly line as a quality inspector at GM's Pontiac Motor Division. Her first full-time job was as an electrical engineer in 1985.
She said Europe places more respect on trades than the U.S. does, describing the problem as one where hands-on work is treated as less desirable than white-collar careers.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink have also warned that the U.S. does not have enough technical talent to keep up with demand from factories, data centers and shipbuilding.
The market has already voted on this issue through wages, not slogans. When a technician can clear '$80,000 to $90,000' and an employer is still short of workers, the shortage is not ideological — it is a pricing problem and a skills problem.
Capital rewards clear rules, productive labor and training that matches real demand. If Washington and corporate America want more growth, they will need more workers who can build, wire and maintain the physical economy that keeps the rest of the market moving.
