Earlier this year, Ford CEO Jim Farley said that America needed a wake-up call. Five thousand mechanic jobs at Ford had gone unfilled. They all offered six-figure salaries—well above the average American worker’s wage—but people weren’t applying.
And Ford isn’t the only employer struggling with a shortfall of workers. For over a decade, numerous blue-collar professions—careers that include manual labor ranging from manufacturing and automotive technicians to construction—have struggled to attract young people.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that more than 400,000 skilled trade jobs are currently unfilled, a gap expected to widen as demand for labor continues to grow. The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte estimated that 3.8 million additional workers will be needed over the next decade.
Myriam Sullivan, senior director at Jobs for the Future’s Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning, says the shortages stem from a “perfect storm,” in which an aging workforce collides with cultural stigma around the work and increased competition for specialized labor.
However, there is some evidence that Gen Z is reconsidering the stigma around blue-collar work as a frankly brutal economy pushes them to reevaluate their options. About 78% of Americans have noticed a rising interest in trade jobs among young adults, according to a 2024 Harris Poll survey for Intuit Credit Karma. With rising tuition costs, these debt-burdened Gen Zers are interested in well-paying careers that allow them to skip a traditional four-year college education. Enrollment in vocation-focused community college has increased by 16% in this last year, according to the National Student Clearinghouse’s tracking data, which also found a 23% rise in Gen Z studying construction trades from 2022 to 2023.
But, as white-collar entry-level jobs disappear, employers and educators have failed to build credible pathways into blue-collar work—leaving high-paying roles unfilled and Gen Z shut out.
The Stigma Around Blue-Collar Work
Clinton Crawford, a 55-year-old automotive technician in Arkansas, told Fortune the system fails from the outset to support young people interested in work like his. Crawford’s high school–aged children were never presented with blue-collar work as a viable option. Instead, nearly every student was encouraged to prepare for a four-year college education. “That’s good, if that’s for you,” Crawford said, “but I don’t think it’s for everyone.”
A similar exchange took place within the household of Ford’s chief executive. At the Ford Pro Accelerate event organized by Farley this fall, with an emphasis on what Farley calls the “essential economy” and the many missing roles to fill there, he spoke with Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Mike Rowe of the Mike Rowe Works Foundation. Farley told them about his son’s summertime work as a mechanic, and his plaintive statement to his parents afterward: “I don’t know why I need to go to college.” Farley said his son found those experiences under the hood of a car more worthwhile than what he believed college could offer him, and that should be welcomed. “It should be a debate.” A few months earlier, Farley told the Aspen Ideas Institute that some of his workers were taking Amazon shifts to make ends meet and he’d heard that “none of the young people want to work here.”
For Farley, the issue stems from a culture that doesn’t value blue-collar labor. A 2025 survey conducted by home services software maker Jobber found that only 7% of parents would prefer their children to pursue vocational education and related work, while a majority of Gen Z students said vocational education carries a cultural stigma compared with a college education.
“If you were to meet a doctor, or someone in a four-year program, or you were to meet someone who is in a four year program, or you met someone who was working on your car, think of the different impressions you would have of all three,” Crawford said.
The Pew Research Center found that only three in 10 blue-collar workers believe that most Americans have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of respect for the work they do. And academics like Harvard professor Michael Sandel have also long raised concerns that the value blue-collar workers bring to the economy has not translated into how they are treated in society.
Crawford pushes back against stereotypes that frame blue-collar labor as unskilled, pointing to the intelligence required to understand the technical aspects of complex systems while translating that knowledge to customers. According to Crawford, these trades are not “for those who can’t do well.” To him, this work is deeply fulfilling, and he finds meaning in helping people get back on the road.
“I’ve been able to help someone when life has given them a bad situation.”
Limited Pathways Into Skilled Trades
Employers have struggled to build and sustain the pathways needed to meet increasing demand for skilled labor. In her role at Jobs for the Future (JFF), a national nonprofit focused on workforce development, Myriam Sullivan works with employers to build apprenticeship pipelines. She said, employers “expect people to come to work job-ready.”
“Oftentimes our conversations with employers center around, like, ‘you’re never going to find that,’” Sullivan said. “So how might we flip that and help you build the workforce that you want to see?”
JFF has found success by helping small and mid-sized firms subsidize training costs, encouraging companies to take a more active role in building the workforce they seek. The organization has also identified gaps in awareness among high school students about the pipelines available to young people interested in this work and collaborates with educators as an intermediary.
Some economists say the barriers to pursuing skilled trades remain primarily financial. Joe Mahon, director of regional outreach at the Minneapolis Fed, said he struggles with characterizations of Gen Z as lacking the work ethic or disposition to see training programs through—claims that he hears often from employers. Instead, Mahon said there is “a tremendous disconnect” between that rhetoric and what actually hinders young people from pursuing the trades.
In his conversations with workers, he said candidates may be offered as little as $11 an hour while training, prompting many to choose immediately higher-paying work instead. If workers are “being paid quite a bit less than what they’re hoping to eventually make, that can be a hard decision to make, especially if you’re cash-strapped,” Mahon said.
However, for those who can see past the stigma attached to blue-collar labor and overcome the financial hurdles, these jobs can offer a level of stability that is increasingly rare as AI disrupts the white-collar job market and reduces entry-level opportunities for young college-grads.
Kyle Knapp, a 38-year-old shop foreman in California, told Fortune that his work enabled him to earn “a great living.” He has bought a house and has been able to comfortably raise a family. The average age of a homebuyer is now 40 years old— it has become a milestone that Gen Z workers now view as nearly impossible.
Educators and employers still face significant challenges in creating clearer pathways for young people to enter these critical and lucrative careers. But it’s an effort Crawford sees as necessary: “Everybody works in this economy together.”
