Using this definition, 9% of all U.S. jobs are in the skilled trades, with 60% of those consisting of jobs in construction and manufacturing. For each person completing a training program, the skilled trades have 3 job openings, creating a talent gap of 1.3 million workers. Around 25% of workers in the skilled trades are 55 or older, meaning demand is expected to rise as workers begin to retire.
Around 70% of jobs in the skilled trades are less likely to be replaced or reshaped by AI. In fact, the rapid growth of data centers is adding to the demand for skilled workers, escalating the talent shortage if industries aren’t able to keep up with the demand.
Also, as companies begin to reshore, demand for more skilled trades workers will continue to rise. According to the 2026 USA Reshoring Survey Report, 36% of manufacturers say they have reshored or are actively executing additional reshoring.
With this additional manufacturing work coming to the U.S., manufacturers are looking for ways to support the growing need for skilled workers. Many say hiring technicians like welders, maintenance and repair techs, and machinists is at a very difficult level.
To fill these roles, 61% of firms are using trade or vocational schools, 58% are using internal upskilling or reskilling programs, 51% are using community college partnerships, 46% are using 3rd party staffing, and 43% are using apprenticeships.
AI can lower barriers to entry as embedded expertise reduces dependence on prior experience, a helpful tool as more workers begin to retire. Manufacturers have an opportunity they need to take advantage of to support the development of skilled trade workers to fill the rapidly expanding gap, ensuring the U.S. can sustain the resurgence of domestic production.
Classroom discussion questions:
1. How should manufacturers balance long‑term investments in automation with short‑term strategies like wage increases or training programs when responding to persistent skilled labor shortages?
2. What operational risks arise when firms rely heavily on overtime, temporary workers, or outsourcing to fill skilled labor gaps?
In Chapter 10, “Human Resources, Job Design, and Work Measurement,” we discuss quality of life and work force motivation. But many of our OM students are not cognizant of the cultural differences in workforces outside the U.S. So let’s examine workers in our biggest competitor, China.
The first major pushback to 996 came in 2019, as China’s economic growth slowed and tech workers began questioning their work conditions. Online protests followed, but the movement faded under government censorship. This year, 996 shot back into the news after two workers died at Pinduoduo, an e-commerce giant. Officials promised to investigate working conditions, although it’s not clear what has come of that. Since then, some companies have taken steps to improve work-life balance. Kuaishou, a video app, just ended a policy requiring its staff to work on weekends twice a month. Tencent began encouraging workers to go home at 6 p.m. — though only on Wednesdays.
Many are willing to endure the working conditions because of the competitiveness of the job market. The number of college graduates in China rose by 73% in the past decade, a stunning achievement for a country that had fewer than 3.5 million university students in 1997. As a result, more people are competing for a limited pool of white-collar jobs.
But it’s also clear that many are sick of the rat race. Some Gen Zers have turned to reading Mao Zedong’s writings on communism to rage against capitalist exploitation. An online craze this year called on young people to “tangping,” or “lie flat” — essentially, to opt out. Still, some in China’s working class dismiss the complaints as elite griping; after all, tech workers are highly paid and educated.
Classroom discussion questions:
How does the “996” culture compare to that in silicon Valley?
What makes the U.S. different from Chinese work patterns?
IN 1930, John Maynard Keynes worried of a new disease: “technological unemployment…due to our discovery of means of economizing the use of labor outrunning the pace at which we can find new uses for labor.” Now, 2 Oxford professors are arguing that jobs are at high risk of being automated in 47% of the occupational categories into which work is sorted. That includes accountancy, legal work, technical writing and a lot of other white-collar occupations.
The case for a highly disruptive period of economic growth is made by MIT profs in “The Second Machine Age.” Like the first great era of industrialization, they argue, it should deliver enormous benefits—but not without a period of uncomfortable change. They write that the amount of progress computers will make in the next few years will equal to the progress they have made since their very beginning!
The combination of big data and smart machines will take over some occupations wholesale; in others it will allow firms to do more with fewer workers. Some jobs—especially those currently associated with high levels of education and high wages—will survive (see table). Rich economies seem to be bifurcating into a small successful group of workers with skills highly complementary with machine intelligence, with the rest of workers less successful.
Classroom discussion questions:
1. In what service jobs will automation be a major factor?
2. Will manufacturing reverse its downward slope of employment?
Using this definition, 9% of all U.S. jobs are in the skilled trades, with 60% of those consisting of jobs in construction and manufacturing. For each person completing a training program, the skilled trades have 3 job openings, creating a talent gap of 1.3 million workers. Around 25% of workers in the skilled trades are 55 or older, meaning demand is expected to rise as workers begin to retire.
