Fixing the rep of blue-collar jobs

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There’s nothing like classic wisdom to shed some light on things.

In the 1963 Looney Toons gem “The Million Hare,” Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny race to a TV studio to claim the $1 million grand prize in a show’s competition. After putting himself and Bugs in the hospital with yet another idiotic scheme, Daffy hobbles to the finish line ahead of Bugs and wins … the Million Box, complete with one million little boxes inside it.

Thinking he was duped, Daffy impetuously donates his prize to Bugs—just in time to learn that inside each little box is a crisp $1 bill. When asked to comment on the gift, Daffy’s head suddenly takes on the image of a jackass as he bellows out, “HEE-haw!”

In April 1963, when that cartoon first aired, American manufacturing was in its heyday: More than one in five people in the U.S. private civilian workforce (15.6 million, or 21.8%) worked in manufacturing that year. Compare that with August 2022, when manufacturers employed 12,852,000 people, less than 8% of the private U.S. labor force.

Something has happened. Yes, global competition happened, as did huge advances in automation, the increase in Americans with university degrees, tighter domestic competition for jobs not requiring a degree, etc., etc., etc. But something still doesn’t add up.

Right now, 834,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs remain unfilled—and this at a time when manufacturing is still the fifth-largest employment sector in America. It’s not as if people don’t or won’t work manufacturing jobs. And those jobs, many of them quite attainable even without a degree, lie unclaimed and unwanted by many of the same people complaining that the American economy has somehow let them down and left them in the dust.

It seems as if, like our friend Daffy, workers all over the board are looking at the good thing right in front of them and taking a hard pass.

In his otherwise well-reasoned Atlantic piece, “The Ballad of Downward Mobility,” author Rich Cohen sighs almost audibly, “A college degree is the new high school diploma: the ante you need just to sit at the table.”

Well, sure. If the table you want to sit at is in a law firm conference room or the front of a classroom or the surgical ward of a hospital, then yes—university (and maybe lots of it) is your ticket.

But what about a worktable in a factory or fabrication shop? Isn’t that still a viable career path? In 2020, manufacturing jobs across the board paid an average of almost $31 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About half of those jobs don’t require a degree (with the attenuating student loan debt), and a great deal of them are in the Rust Belt and other regions of the country where the cost of living is still comparatively reasonable.

So, if those jobs pay a decent wage, are accessible to just about anyone with a high school diploma, and are there for the taking, what gives?

There can only be one answer—perception.

Paul Wellener, leader of Deloitte Consulting’s U.S. Industrial and Construction practice and a Deloitte vice chair, told TPJ that to fight trends and fill the void, companies must rebrand the perception of the industry. How? Among other measures, they must develop the current workforce by implementing work-to-learn programs that provide strategic training in technical skills and business acumen and invest in startups to gain access to new technology.

“R&D and specialized solutions and services provided to customers have become the differentiating factors in companies’ ability to compete,” said Wellener. “Moreover, continuing improvements in product development and production processes are driving changes in the nature of the work, including shifts in job roles.

“The digital transformation in the manufacturing industry continues to develop, and as it does, new skills will be needed to be developed, refined, and honed.”

If manufacturers want to stay in the contest for talent and win it, they’re going to have to pull out all the stops—manufacturing camps (like those supported by FMA’s Nuts, Bolts & Thingamajigs Foundation), apprenticeship programs, flexible work schedules, retraining allowances, scholarships, marketing campaigns … you name it.

Otherwise, the entire sector might be singing the same song Daffy Duck did when he gave away his Million Box.