04/17/2025

In Today's America, Nobody Wants Factory Jobs

Americans want factory jobs back in the U.S. - they just don't want to do them

A recent viral chart based off a 2024 survey from the conservative think tank Cato Institute had some stunning data. It showed 80 percent of Americans think the U.S. would be better off if there were more manufacturing jobs—information that should delight the current occupant of the White House. It would certainly align with some of President Trump’s America-first rhetoric.

But as the Financial Times' chart recently noted, there is another crucial statistic from Cato that suggests a return to our industrialized "good old days" isn't top of mind for most of the workforce: only 25 percent of Americans believe they'd be better off working in a factory.

Colin Grabow, associate director at Cato's trade policy studies center, wrote that the national distaste for this kind of work was "a result that holds across class, education and racial lines" and pointed out, Fortune notes, that even in the most enthusiastic age group, 18-to-29 year-olds, "still registered just 36 percent interest in manufacturing employment." There are about 500,000 open positions in manufacturing now, and "Such jobs can't find enough interested Americans to fill them."

Please select this link to read the complete article from Inc.