If you’ve recently needed to look for a new mechanic to work on your vehicle, you’ll know that it’s all too easy to end up dealing with technicians with minimal knowledge of the vehicles they’re supposed to be fixing, or trying to avoid falling victim to a repair scam. Trying to find skilled mechanics isn’t a problem limited to everyday owners, either — even CEOs like Ford’s Jim Farley have said they’re finding it difficult to source workers with the skills to fix their vehicles. Farley shed more light on his company’s struggles during a recent appearance on the Office Hours: Business Edition podcast, saying that Ford “had five thousand [current] openings” for mechanics, leaving its service centers with “a bay with a lift, and tools, and no-one to work in it.”
He blamed the issue on a lack of education opportunities, saying, “We do not have trade schools, we are not investing in educating our next generation.” Farley said that the vacant Ford mechanic jobs paid “$120,000 a job per year, but it takes you five years to learn it,” noting that “tak[ing] a diesel out of a Super Duty, it takes a lot of skill, you need to know what you’re doing.”
He was particularly critical of the state of the automotive industry compared to China, and suggested that the U.S. might even be putting itself at a military disadvantage with its current job market. Farley said, “God forbid, if we ever get in a war, Google’s not going to be able to make […] the tanks and the planes, so this is a self-defense for our country issue.”
