Sasha Rogelberg
Fri, November 28, 2025
How serious is the skilled trades worker shortage?
What were the outcomes of Ford's 2023 strike?
What inspired Ford's recent employment policy changes?
Why are young Ford workers taking Amazon shifts?
Ford CEO Jim Farley learned from older employees that some young workers at the carmaker were taking shifts at Amazon to make ends meet, he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Farley said he drew on founder Henry Ford’s decision to raise factory wages to $5 a day in 1914 to make temporary workers into full-time employees. Young people have previously eschewed manufacturing jobs due to low wages.
Some economists credit carmaker Henry Ford for jump-starting the American middle class in the 20th century when, in January 1914, he hiked factory wages to $5, more than double the average wage for an eight-hour work day.
More than 100 years later, facing the reality of many employees “barely getting by,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said he took a page out of the founder’s playbook.
The carmaker’s chief executive recognized the need to make a change in his workplace when he spoke to veteran employees during union contract negotiations and learned young Ford employees were working multiple jobs and getting inadequate sleep due to low wages, Farley said in an interview with journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson at the Aspen Ideas Festival earlier this year.
“The older workers who’d been at the company said, ‘None of the young people want to work here. Jim, you pay $17 an hour, and they are so stressed,’” Farley said.
Farley learned some workers also held jobs at Amazon, where they worked for eight hours before clocking in to a seven-hour shift at Ford, sleeping for only three or four hours. At a Ford Pro Accelerate event in September, the CEO said entry-level factory workers told him they were working up to three jobs.
As a result, the company made temporary workers into full-time employees, making them eligible for higher wages, profit-sharing checks, and better health care coverage. The transition was outlined in 2019 contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW), with temporary workers able to become full-time after two years of continuous employment at Ford.
“It wasn’t easy to do,” Farley said. “It was expensive. But I think that’s the kind of changes we need to make in our country.”
Ford’s own decision to double factory wages in 1914 was not altruistic, but rather a strategy to attract a stable workforce, as well as provide a stimulus for his own workers to be able to afford Ford products.
“He said, ‘I’m doing this because I want my factory worker to buy my cars. If they make enough money, they’ll buy my own product,’” Farley said. “It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way.”
Trouble attracting Gen Z trade workers
Farley, a proponent of growing U.S. manufacturing productivity to support the essential economy, has advocated for young workers to have strong trade experiences. Earlier this month, he sounded the alarm on the shortage of manual labor jobs, saying in an episode of the Office Hours: Business Edition podcast that Ford had 5,000 open mechanic positions that have remain unfilled, despite an up-to $120,000 salary for the role.
“Our governments have to get really serious about investing in trade schools and skilled trades,” he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival. “You go to Germany, every one of our factory workers has an apprentice starting in junior high school. Every one of those jobs has a person behind it for eight years that is trained.”
Despite the U.S. seeing 3.8 million new manufacturing jobs by 2033, according to Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, the younger generation of workers has largely turned away from the career path. As as some ditch college degrees, Gen Z enrollment in trade schools is on the rise, but the newest generation entering the workforce is largely eschewing factory jobs, citing low wages, according to a 2023 Soter Analytics study. U.S. manufacturing jobs in the U.S. have an average $25-per-hour wage—about $51,890 per year—falling short of the average American salary of $66,600.
American carmakers like Ford may be trying to make it appealing for young workers to embark on manufacturing careers, but they are still not immune to workers’ grievances over wages. In 2023, thousands of UAW members, including 16,600 Ford employees, went on strike before reaching a contract deal in October of that year, which, beyond increasing wages, also further decreased the period of time necessary for a temp worker to become full-time.
Farley called the strike “completely unnecessary” from management’s perspective and maintained the onus of improving trade workers’ wages isn’t just on Ford.
“We’re not just going to hope it gets better,” he said. “We have the resources, and we have the know-how, after 120 years, to solve these problems, but we need more help from others.”
A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on June 30, 2025.
More on Gen Z work trends:
Gen Z college graduates are entering the toughest job market in years—here’s how they can stand out
‘The kids aren’t alright,’ warns top economist, as unemployed, pessimistic Gen Z living with parents blow a $12 billion hole in consumption
With entry-level hiring shrinking, Gen Z turns to double majoring for protection from AI
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Guy Who Makes His Living Selling Jeeps And Rams Says We Can't Get Rid Of ICE Cars
Matthew DeBord
Fri, November 28, 2025
Jalopnik.
Stellantis Chairman John Elkann seen at an F1 race in 2024 - Kym Illman/Getty Images
The slowdown in EV sales has created some real headaches for automakers, but in Europe the difficulties are especially acute. And now Stellantis Chairman John Elkann is insisting that the industry needs more time to get its act together when it comes to the region's carbon-reduction goals.
"There is another way to cut emissions in Europe in a constructive and agreed way, restoring the growth we have lost and meeting people's needs," Elkann said during an event on Nov. 25 to mark the start of production of the new hybrid version of the Fiat 500 battery-electric car. The auto industry's proposals include allowing plug-in hybrids, extended-range EVs and alternative fuels to be sold beyond 2035 when a planned zero emissions mandate will ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars across the EU.
Elkann also dispensed some ominous warnings about what could happen if the EU doesn't go along with his recommendations, insisting that staying the course could lead to "irreversible decline." Yikes!
Europe problems and Stellantis problems
Fiat 500 vehicles seen at a factory in Italy - Stefano Guidi/Getty Images
As Reuters pointed out, current projections for 2024 vehicle registrations in Europe are running about three million below where they were in 2019. The overall market is sluggish, and yet it's supposed to be in a process of transformation, moving away from combustion technologies and toward electrification. The arrival of cheap EVs from China is complicating the situation.
Stellantis itself is also in a state of corporate struggle. Former CEO Carlos Tavares departed last year, and his replacement, Antonio Filosa, is still finding his footing. This has placed Elkann in the awkward position of assuming a higher profile than perhaps he thinks is ideal. He has to fix the family car business, which was formed through mergers of Fiat and Chrysler, then a combination of the resulting FCA conglomerate with the PSA Group. In this role, he now has to also serve as a sort of industrial statesman, dealing with the EU and the governments of Italy and France, as well as contending with the U.S., where Stellantis relies on big pickups and SUVs to drive sales and profits.
Elkann isn't alone
BMW workers assemble a vehicle at a factory in Germany - Leonhard Simon/Getty Images
EVs were supposed to help Europe move away from diesels, in the aftermath of Volkswagen's dieselgate scandal. The EU has tariffed Chinese EV imports to protect the continent's carmakers, but China has engaged a multifaceted strategy, exporting combustion vehicles to markets such as Italy and Spain, where the Middle Kingdom thinks it can take market share against weaker competition. In this context, Stellantis risks being unable to challenge the Chinese on ICE vehicles if the European automaking giant doesn't continue to invest in combustion platforms because it has to drop them to meet EV mandates. Elkann is of course far from alone: every European carmaker is up against the same dilemma. The transition was always going to be precarious, and that's why European regulators thought the 2035 deadline would give automakers enough time to prepare for a massive shift away from burning petrol.
But projections for EV sales turned out to be overly optimistic, and now the European auto industry is dealing with the fact that it was never structured for such an aggressive timeline. The implications are alarming, especially on the economic side. As Wired reported earlier this year, the industry "employs 13.8 million people across Europe and represents around 7 percent of the continent's GDP." Everything is now pushing up against a December review of emissions goals, so it's hardly surprising the Elkann has taken the opportunity to use some strong language to beg for breathing room.
Matthew DeBord
Fri, November 28, 2025
Jalopnik.
Stellantis Chairman John Elkann seen at an F1 race in 2024 - Kym Illman/Getty Images
The slowdown in EV sales has created some real headaches for automakers, but in Europe the difficulties are especially acute. And now Stellantis Chairman John Elkann is insisting that the industry needs more time to get its act together when it comes to the region's carbon-reduction goals.
"There is another way to cut emissions in Europe in a constructive and agreed way, restoring the growth we have lost and meeting people's needs," Elkann said during an event on Nov. 25 to mark the start of production of the new hybrid version of the Fiat 500 battery-electric car. The auto industry's proposals include allowing plug-in hybrids, extended-range EVs and alternative fuels to be sold beyond 2035 when a planned zero emissions mandate will ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars across the EU.
Elkann also dispensed some ominous warnings about what could happen if the EU doesn't go along with his recommendations, insisting that staying the course could lead to "irreversible decline." Yikes!
Europe problems and Stellantis problems
Fiat 500 vehicles seen at a factory in Italy - Stefano Guidi/Getty Images
As Reuters pointed out, current projections for 2024 vehicle registrations in Europe are running about three million below where they were in 2019. The overall market is sluggish, and yet it's supposed to be in a process of transformation, moving away from combustion technologies and toward electrification. The arrival of cheap EVs from China is complicating the situation.
Stellantis itself is also in a state of corporate struggle. Former CEO Carlos Tavares departed last year, and his replacement, Antonio Filosa, is still finding his footing. This has placed Elkann in the awkward position of assuming a higher profile than perhaps he thinks is ideal. He has to fix the family car business, which was formed through mergers of Fiat and Chrysler, then a combination of the resulting FCA conglomerate with the PSA Group. In this role, he now has to also serve as a sort of industrial statesman, dealing with the EU and the governments of Italy and France, as well as contending with the U.S., where Stellantis relies on big pickups and SUVs to drive sales and profits.
Elkann isn't alone
BMW workers assemble a vehicle at a factory in Germany - Leonhard Simon/Getty Images
EVs were supposed to help Europe move away from diesels, in the aftermath of Volkswagen's dieselgate scandal. The EU has tariffed Chinese EV imports to protect the continent's carmakers, but China has engaged a multifaceted strategy, exporting combustion vehicles to markets such as Italy and Spain, where the Middle Kingdom thinks it can take market share against weaker competition. In this context, Stellantis risks being unable to challenge the Chinese on ICE vehicles if the European automaking giant doesn't continue to invest in combustion platforms because it has to drop them to meet EV mandates. Elkann is of course far from alone: every European carmaker is up against the same dilemma. The transition was always going to be precarious, and that's why European regulators thought the 2035 deadline would give automakers enough time to prepare for a massive shift away from burning petrol.
But projections for EV sales turned out to be overly optimistic, and now the European auto industry is dealing with the fact that it was never structured for such an aggressive timeline. The implications are alarming, especially on the economic side. As Wired reported earlier this year, the industry "employs 13.8 million people across Europe and represents around 7 percent of the continent's GDP." Everything is now pushing up against a December review of emissions goals, so it's hardly surprising the Elkann has taken the opportunity to use some strong language to beg for breathing room.
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