Time for a skilled trades renaissance

The once-fringe bid for American reindustrialization now is a national consensus. Everyone from President Donad Trump to Gov. Josh Shapiro agrees the United States needs to get back into the business of making things — particularly the cutting-edge infrastructure and components we need to remain technologically competitive against global adversaries such as China.

But consensus does not equate to completion. The reindustrialization project still faces bottlenecks. Capital needs to flow to the right projects. Policymakers need to erect the right frameworks to encourage investment. The private sector needs to incorporate the value of domestic production into business logics, profit formulas and long-term investment plans. And, perhaps most critically, the American reindustrialization effort needs a human capital plan.

America is staring down a daunting skilled trades gap. By some estimates, an additional 500,000 skilled electricians will be required over the next decade. No one knows where the country will find those electricians, or their peers in construction and other skilled trades. All the promised investment in Pennsylvania’s manufacturing sector — needed to produce new ships in Philadelphia, nuclear components in Blairsville and gas projects in Washington County — won’t come to fruition if there aren’t skilled hands to build the necessary infrastructure and man the production lines. Economic growth, technological leadership and real-world capacity to build things all go hand-in-hand. America can’t have enduring and defensible global leadership in algorithms if we don’t have pipefitters.

This is not news in Western Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh’s coal miners and iron workers fueled America’s original industrial renaissance. The region’s civil engineers, bricklayers, electricians and plumbers have brought to life marvels of the built environment that dot the national landscape.

Western Pennsylvania’s history also illustrates the role of the private sector in building American industrial capacity. Sustainable industrial growth stems from private sector decision-making — not, or not just, from government intervention. It was Andrew Carnegie who told Congress that “we can beat the world at the manufacture of steel” in 1908, not the other way around. Every building bearing his name in Pittsburgh is a reminder that powerful domestic industry stems from the investment, conviction, and patriotism of corporate leaders.

These realities have largely been forgotten elsewhere in America over the past generation. America’s economy has become dominated by the dual trends of information technology and outsourcing. America’s corporate titans have shipped manufacturing jobs overseas. Too much of the country has left behind the trades and assumed the economy can run solely on the promise of bits over atoms. And even the nascent reindustrialization effort has overemphasized the role of government intervention.

In Western Pennsylvania, the absurdity of those trends is obvious. Now, there are signs that others, namely America’s “Big Tech,” might be catching up, too — and putting their money to work to solve the problem. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, in concert with Associated Builders and Contractors and the National Urban League, recently launched the America’s Workforce Academy, a skilled trades training effort. The program is starting in five American cities. It focuses on providing participants with a “job-ready foundation for entry-level roles such as craft helper, electrical helper, fiber technician trainee, low-voltage support or general construction labor.” This appears to be a holistic approach to a critical labor challenge. And it is receiving serious backing — to the tune of an initial commitment of $115 million.

These efforts offer tremendous social boons. Serious investments from the likes of Meta should raise the profile and prominence of trades careers. Higher and more fulfilling employment promises to give a broad swath of communities a much-needed shot in the arm. And individuals who start on the trades path that Meta’s program is launching will have opportunities for steady career progression. Meta’s President Dina Powell McCormick and Mike Rowe, of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, have stated that “there is no lack of Americans eager to learn and work.”

They’re right. It’s encouraging they’re putting their money — and hiring influence — into the fight.

This investment from Meta should inspire confidence from the broader market and spur similar contributions from the rest of America’s Big Tech. As Meta’s project gets underway, its successes will make clear America’s reindustrialization can work — and work for Westmoreland County just as well as it does for Silicon Valley.

Nate Picarsic, a Westmoreland County native, is a co-founder of Horizon Advisory, a strategy consultancy and data provider that helps companies and investors assess geopolitical risk, and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.