GM CEO blasts USs societal problem with skilled trades says jobs can pay $100K and be more AI-proof
General Motors CEO Mary Barra says the US has a “societal problem” in how it views skilled trades, arguing that hands-on careers deserve more respect and could offer high school students work that is “a little more AI-proof than some others.”She told Fortune that high school students should take a harder look at careers such as auto technician and electrician as artificial intelligence threatens to disrupt traditional white-collar work.“[We need to] really make sure high school students understand this is a great career and frankly maybe a little more AI-proof than some others,” Barra told Fortune’s “Titans and Disruptors of Industry” podcast.A technician can make $80,000 to $90,000 a year and “potentially even higher, depending on how many hours they work,” the 64-year-old CEO added.The exec’s remarks came amid a steady stream of worries voiced by business leaders about the shortage of skilled blue collar workers. Ford CEO Jim Farley said in November the company had been unable to fill some 5,000 openings for mechanics despite offering a salary of $120,000 a year.The US could be short 2.1 million skilled-trades workers by 2030, according to the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades.During the recent podcast, Barra pointed to electricians, saying demand for the trade is growing partly because of the buildout of data centers needed for AI.The US will need an estimated 300,000-plus additional electricians during the next 10 years.Barra, GM’s CEO since 2014, argued that the US does not give hands-on technical careers the same respect afforded to many office jobs.“I frankly think this is an area where Europe has much more respect for the trades and the importance of people who do very technical things but work with their hands and build things and make things and service things,” she told Fortune.Barra’s connection to the trades is personal — her father worked at GM for 39 years as a die maker.Her own GM career began while she was s...