Ford reveals issues with young people in manufacturing

Ford CEO Jim Farley recently uncovered a troubling reality — some of the company’s youngest employees are working multiple jobs just to make ends meet. In conversations with veteran workers during union contract negotiations, Farley learned that young employees were clocking in at Amazon before beginning shifts on Ford’s factory floor. Farley said the news reminded him of a pivotal moment in Ford’s history, when Henry Ford raised workers’ wages in order to help them afford the very cars they were building. That step served as inspiration for Farley to take action.

Young people at Ford 

The realization came when Farley spoke with longtime Ford employees who voiced concern about their younger colleagues. “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 recently said in an interview with Walter Isaacson. He was shocked to hear that some younger workers were spending eight hours at Amazon before showing up for seven-hour shifts at Ford, all while barely sleeping.

Changes at Ford

In response, Ford converted temporary workers to full-time status — a decision that granted access to better pay, profit-sharing checks and improved health benefits. “It wasn’t easy to do,” Farley admitted. “It was expensive. But I think that’s the kind of changes we need to make in our country.” He also echoed the original founder’s logic from decades ago. “‘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.”

Larger labor problem

Ford’s CEO is attempting to fix a larger problem facing American manufacturing. “Our governments have to get really serious about investing in trade schools and skilled trades,” he said. “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.” Although the U.S. is expected to add 3.8 million manufacturing jobs by 2033, according to Deloitte, interest from younger generations remains limited.

Wages issue 

The average wage for U.S. manufacturing jobs is about $25 an hour, or around $51,890 per year, which falls short of the national average salary of $66,600. This wage gap continues to fuel dissatisfaction among workers. In 2023, 16,600 Ford employees went on strike before reaching a contract agreement that October. “We’re not just going to hope it gets better,” Farley 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.”

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