Jim Farley, president and CEO of Ford, talks at a press conference in 2025. June 13th. Le Mans, France. Credit – Ker Robertson – Getty images
I Build at a business school working at Hill and Vaughn, a classic car restoration store founded by Filst Formula One champion Phil Hill and collector Ken Vaughn.
Mostly I worked with interiors, sewn with frog leather, Buffalo hiding place and every material you can imagine. But I was also a mechanic who rebuilt the engines and repaired many parts and systems that forced cars to drive from Henry Ford’s day. Like many Americans, I learned by hand.
Today, as CEO, I hear every day new technologies such as AI, will change our economy. But I can’t think of a job that Ai can’t change: the millions who work with their hands first. This includes tens of thousands of Ford hourly workers and skilled traders who translate our production system every day, and the millions who use our commercial trucks and minibuses to do their job.
Whether you are the first answer to insert the IV line into a speed -up ambulance machine to a plumber who sews sewers, you can’t do your job.
These practical workers are part of what we call the essential economy of America. This workforce of 95 million employees applies to critical industries that we rely on to maintain our economy, the work, whose work has long been a springboard to the middle class and the foundations for strong, stable communities. Sectors such as construction, agricultural, qualified goods, transportation, energy and production and production companies support 3 million companies and deliver a $ 12 trillion GDP. The fundamental economy is the foundation of this country. And he is in danger.
Over the past eight years, for technology as cloud computing, mobile programs and faster teleconferences-productivity in the White Collar Economy increased by 28%. According to the recent study of the Aspen Institute, productivity has decreased over the same period during the same period. This is exactly what I care about when we are approaching the day of work because productivity is one of the most effective measures to increase business, higher wages for employees and higher GDP to our country.
So how do we eliminate this gap?
First of all, we need to take the development of labor seriously. America is experiencing a major lack of labor in essential industries. In my industry, we will need more than 400,000 new car technologies in the next three years to keep up with demand. Today, the construction industry is a short half a million employees, and manufacturers need another 419,000 employees to expand factories. I predict the demand for qualified economic workers will only grow in the coming years.
For too long, labor development programs have been considered a recent form of the welfare of the unemployed. Instead, according to a new research document at the Aspen Institute, which states we should learn from a successful federal R&D funding model and keep labor development as a powerful investment in an essential economy. We are currently spending less on professional training than almost all other industrial nations – only 0.1% of our GDP based on new research. This must change.
Almost a century ago, employees were able to train in private institutions such as Henry Ford Trade School, or through government programs such as Works Progress Administration. Both of them closed until 1952.
Public panels offering two -year degrees and qualified trade certificates were and are still being launched into stable middle -class life. We need cultural changes related to the development of labor in America, which breaks the stigma that this career is not worth our young people who are pursuing.
When we teach employees, we should prepare them in 2050, not in the 1950s. To the economy. New measures such as supplemented reality and robotics can increase the productivity of car technology, much like a cloud computing office worker. At the moment, we have the opportunity to encourage the “digital” revolution for ten digits that are most important to those who have practical work.
To achieve these goals, we need to reduce the bureaucracy at the federal, state and local level. Too often infrastructure and production development projects die due to avoidable and expensive permits that are delayed. We can find ways to ensure safety, protect the environment and listen to the contribution of stakeholders, while implementing projects faster.
I know there are a lot of good ideas there. Later, this month Ford conveys the first summit of its kind about the essential Detroit economy. I invite business, technology and government leaders – and, of course, employees and entrepreneurs related to the Essential Economy front lines. I am convinced that we will be influenced because the ideas born in Detroit are rarely here.
What happens if we continue to ignore the essential economy? Too much builders will make the home even more expensive. Lack of agricultural workers? We all pay more for food goods.
So, as I approach the day of work, I will celebrate the Ford Front’s hero and qualified traders every day to make millions moving. I will look for ways to eliminate productivity gap that affects all the essential economic workers, creating and supporting this country and our communities. Let’s make a fundamental economy with a national priority because we all succeed.
