Mike Rowe said that the massive worker shortage undermining America’s economic recovery is due to people looking down on jobs involving hard work.
The former “Dirty Jobs” star made his comments on Fox News on Thursday.
“There’s something in us, it’s the fault in our stars, you know, where we begin to resent the very thing we rely upon,” said Rowe.
“My career has been spent mostly trying to find the workers who are out of sight and therefore out of mind, just tapping the country on the shoulder and saying, ‘hey! What about him? What about her? Check these guys out,'” he added.
Labor shortages across the country have hamstrung companies trying to meet the increased demand as the pandemic recedes and Americans go back to living life. Average wages have risen as a response, but skyrocketing inflation is also taking a toll.
“Look this whole problem, this disconnect, this skills gap, 11 million open jobs, this isn’t a mystery. This is a reflection of what we value,” Rowe continued.
“And our country has become disconnected from the kinds of jobs that you’re talking about right now. We’re not properly gobsmacked when we turn on the switch and the lights turn on, or when we flush the toilet and it all goes away,” he said.
“So it’s no great mystery why our kids aren’t eager to fill these positions, we take them for granted, ourselves,” he concluded.
Rowe went on to say that even people who value labor generally don’t want their children to become welders or truck drivers, despite the opportunity to earn great wages working those jobs.
The economic recovery has been stymied by a lack of workers, a trend that some economists are calling “the Great Resignation.” Many Republicans believed that generous unemployment benefits were keeping people from going back to work but the problem has continued long after those benefits were ended.
Here’s the video of Rowe’s comments:
Mike Rowe solves mystery of 11 million open jobs
www.youtube.com