Ford CEO says he has 5,000 open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries from the shortage of manually skilled workers: ‘We are in trouble in our country’

[Chris]

You couldn’t pay me six figures to work on these new pieces of crap they build either.

Modern day vehicles are unnecessarily complicated, ruined by governmental regulations (just like the government ruins anything and everything they touch). Working on cars is no longer enjoyable.

https://fortune.com/2025/11/12/ford...ade-schools-we-are-in-trouble-in-our-country/

 

[NDSpeed]

For thirty years they preached College, college,
college,

Now we're have all these college degree kids $120,000 in debt with no real path forward.

I've got a 19 year old son who's making $45k clearing toilet jams. If he sticks with this his friend who got.him hired is making $120k since he's stepped up a ring on the ladder as a super visor now.

 

[Chris]

For thirty years they preached College, college,
college,

Now we're have all these college degree kids $120,000 in debt with no real path forward.

I've got a 19 year old son who's making $45k clearing toilet jams. If he sticks with this his friend who got.him hired is making $120k since he's stepped up a ring on the ladder as a super visor now.

I've got a brother-in-law making 180k a year as a union plumber (overtime included).

College is a scam for anything other than STEM degrees. We should never listen to a single thing they tell us. All the advice they give is bad from "take the vax and you'll have immunity" to "go to college and get a degree" to "red meat is bad for you". All you have to do is look at their track record. They're wrong about everything.

 

[CMBD]

This has been an obvious growing problem since at least the 80s.

Getting rid of shop classes in high schools was a HUGE mistake. Not everyone is cut out for college, and that blue collar need isn't going away. I absolutely would not be where I am today had I been pushed into college and not a trade school to get a degree.

I went to HS in the 80s. My HS had a small engines class (which I took), plastics, and a lame woodshop program. The welding and auto programs had been gone a while. Fortunately I could take off campus auto shop and welding with an ROP program.

I was a Ford auto trans tech for nearly all of the 90s. Technology from when I started to when I stopped was was the same for the most part, just more electronics. It was easy to deal with the new technology because you had all the factory tools and training. I left the auto trans life because politics at the last two dealers I was at.

 

[cliffish]

For thirty years they preached College, college,
college,

Now we're have all these college degree kids $120,000 in debt with no real path forward.

I've got a 19 year old son who's making $45k clearing toilet jams. If he sticks with this his friend who got.him hired is making $120k since he's stepped up a ring on the ladder as a super visor now.

yep, my son is a 4th year teacher in NH, with a masters....makes about 50K......

 

[Feralkid]

"6-figure salaries"​

Thing is, it's the "potential to make" six figure salary. Dealerships rip everyone off, including their employees.

 

[jeepguy03]

"6-figure salaries"​

Thing is, it's the "potential to make" six figure salary. Dealerships rip everyone off, including their employees.

This, it's never 6 figure salaries. There is a reason so many technicians on flat rate are leaving the industry.

 

[Chris]

"6-figure salaries"​

Thing is, it's the "potential to make" six figure salary. Dealerships rip everyone off, including their employees.

Dealerships are yet another model that need to die a quick and painful death.

 

[MikeE024]

Generally speaking, it all goes back to supply and demand (which isn't fixed), so there is no permanent best way.

Sadly, kids have been heavily marketed to colleges because it makes a ton of money for the schools and the student loan industry. I understand buyer beware, but there's a deep seeded evil involved when pushing blue-collar parents and their children in a certain direction as if it's necessary to have a good life (knowing damn well that there aren't enough seats at the table to make good on their claims).

Local community college ads annoy me the most with their manipulative messages about "providing a chance at a better life" (preying on the poorest and most ignorant) as if they are doomed if they don't go to college.

This doesn't even get into the skill sets lost due to slave labor doing much of the manufacturing over the past 30 years overseas and skilled US workers dying without an apprentice to carry their knowledge forward. Sprinkle some laziness, coddled existences, and classism in the mix and you get a problem that they are now trying to solve with robots and AI.

 

[Rooscooter]

Just 5,000?…. They’re Fords after all….

 

[InOmaha]

This, it's never 6 figure salaries. There is a reason so many technicians on flat rate are leaving the industry.

This. My B-I-L worked at a dealership and they basically got paid by the job based on a book that said how long it should take. If you live in the rust belt you know jobs can take much longer than book estimates based on how someone cares for their car and if they drive it a lot in the winter. A handful of rusty bolts and/or one snapped bolt away from an afternoon of fun.

He quit and got a job with the railroad. He drives 30 miles each way a day to that job instead of 5 miles, makes more money, and works less hours.

 

[lBasket]

This. My B-I-L worked at a dealership and they basically got paid by the job based on a book that said how long it should take. If you live in the rust belt you know jobs can take much longer than book estimates based on how someone cares for their car and if they drive it a lot in the winter. A handful of rusty bolts and/or one snapped bolt away from an afternoon of fun.

He quit and got a job with the railroad. He drives 30 miles each way a day to that job instead of 5 miles, makes more money, and works less.

He can't take a train?

 

[InOmaha]

He can't take a train?

Might be able to once he gets to the rail yard. Not from his house. Hobo it to some other state?

 

[steelhd]

"6-figure salaries"​

Thing is, it's the "potential to make" six figure salary. Dealerships rip everyone off, including their employees.

^ This. IIRC technicians often come out of trade school with $30K in debt, then have to buy $30K in tools, just to start at $30K.

And "six figures" sounds impressive but $100K doesn't go as far as it once went.

 

[steelhd]

Dealerships are yet another model that need to die a quick and painful death.

The only reason stealerships exist in 2025 is because long ago stealerships lobbied (bought) politicians for laws that required them in the middle of the sales transition. There is literally no other reason that manufacturers can't sell directly to consumers, which would be to our great economic benefit, and set up their own service and repair centers.

 

[Chris]

The only reason stealerships exist in 2025 is because long ago stealerships lobbied (bought) politicians for laws that required them in the middle of the sales transition. There is literally no other reason that manufacturers can't sell directly to consumers, which would be to our great economic benefit, and set up their own service and repair centers.

Tesla has managed to bypass this and sell direct to consumer. Of course that’s made a lot of people mad. If I recall, maybe it was NY who banned Tesla stores?

In any case, of course it’s political. If it was left to the free market (as it should be), stealerships would have ceased to exist a long time ago. They offer nothing to the consumer other than a gigantic headache and exceptionally crappy service departments.

 

[jeepguy03]

^ This. IIRC technicians often come out of trade school with $30K in debt, then have to buy $30K in tools, just to start at $30K.

And "six figures" sounds impressive but $100K doesn't go as far as it once went.

Yeah it's one of those jobs where you can make 100k, but you'll be in constant debt buying new tools, working long hours, and your entire body will be broken after 15 years.

 

[ColoJeep]

Yeah it's one of those jobs where you can make 100k, but you'll be in constant debt buying new tools, working long hours, and your entire body will be broken after 15 years.

The whole " Flat Rate " system is designed to make the dealer money and cause a mechanic to spend huge amounts of money to " beat the system ".
Can you imagine if the " Flat rate " system was applied everywhere ? Medical , realty , architecture , I.T. , sales.
People would totally freak out being payed only what " The Manual " allows .

 

[cliffish]

Tesla has managed to bypass this and sell direct to consumer. Of course that’s made a lot of people mad. If I recall, maybe it was NY who banned Tesla stores?

In any case, of course it’s political. If it was left to the free market (as it should be), stealerships would have ceased to exist a long time ago. They offer nothing to the consumer other than a gigantic headache and exceptionally crappy service departments.

Nope, we have a huge Tesla sales and service center up the block.

 

[Apparition]

Nope, we have a huge Tesla sales and service center up the block.

But you can also order one online