Ford CEO Jim Farley admits the American economy is 'in trouble' — and blames one major cause
Ever since Donald Trump took over as US President, his policies have sparked a fresh debate about the future of the American economy, considering the impact of tariffs and tax cuts. Ford CEO Jim Farley also decided to give his two cents about it. Farley believes that the economy is not in the best shape at the moment, especially when it comes to certain types of jobs. These jobs are mainly blue-collar, and Farley believes that there are simply not enough Americans who are qualified or would even be willing to learn these types of jobs.
Speaking on the Office Hours podcast, Farley said that these blue-collar jobs were what made the United States the great nation that it is today, as per a report in The Street. He said, “In my humble opinion, those hard-working jobs made our country what it is today. It is not easy work, it is hard, it is tedious, and it is important.”
The Ford CEO believes that there are a million positions in those sectors that haven't been filled. His own company has 5,000 openings for mechanics, but Farley is having a hard time finding people to fill those roles.
“The essential economy, we are in trouble in our country,” he added, before explaining, “We are not talking about this enough. It’s a very serious thing. We don’t have trade schools. We are not investing in educating the next generation.” The Ford CEO is not the only one who feels this way. Turns out that United States President Donald Trump himself believes this to be the case, and has made some comments that might not sit well with his supporters.
One of the main campaign promises that Trump had made to propel himself to victory was to prevent workers from other countries from coming into the country on a temporary basis to take jobs that an American citizen could do. The H-1B non-immigrant visa program allows this, and a lot of Trump supporters wanted it abolished. However, even the President admitted that it was important to bring in talent for certain jobs, as there simply aren’t enough Americans skilled enough.
Farley believed that the blue-collar jobs were the lifeblood of the nation and without a lot of people to do them, the country could be in trouble. However, he has not given up hope. “If we work together like we always have in America, we start to shine a light on the problem, and we start getting like-minded people together… and we get after this with the government. Through education, we can solve this, but we have a lot of work to do,” the Ford CEO explained.
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