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America is running short on skilled workers.
That's a message skilled-trades advocate Mike Rowe has embraced for years. And speaking with Fox News host Laura Ingraham (1), Rowe said the labor shortage extends far beyond Silicon Valley — a location that's filled with lots of engineering jobs, yes, but also a growing need for skilled workers.
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Rowe says that, for example, U.S. military shipbuilding and commercial projects (2) are competing for the exact same pool of skilled labor as hotspots driving the latest innovations in artificial intelligence.
"The Pentagon needs 400,000 welders and electricians just for submarine contracts over the next seven or eight years," Rowe said. "It's mind-boggling — and they're all competing for your kid."
But he added, "Today, of course, it's Google and Meta and anybody who's trying to build one of those things — a data center," he said, adding, "That's completely transformed the demands on the workforce."
Rowe's comments echo sentiments of others in the field worried about the compounding shortages.
The Associated Builders and Contractors (3) estimates that the U.S. construction industry alone faces a shortage of roughly 350,000 workers this year, while the National Center for Construction Education and Research expects a shortfall of over 1 million workers by 2030 (4) as workers retire.
Much of the excitement surrounding artificial intelligence focuses on companies developing chips, software and large language models.
But AI also requires an enormous amount of physical infrastructure.
Every new data center needs electricians to install high-voltage electrical systems, HVAC technicians to build cooling systems, welders and steelworkers to help construct facilities and skilled tradespeople to maintain them once they're operational.
Additionally, Big Tech isn't just spending on software anymore.
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