Finance
Lowe's bets $250 million on jobs AI can't take
The Lowe’s Foundation has launched the Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition, the largest cross-sector skilled trades coalition in U.S.
Key takeaways
- Lowe’s Foundation launched the Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition to train one million people for skilled trades by 2035.
- The coalition is backed by over 75 American educators, businesses, workforce organizations, industry vendors, and corporate leaders.
- By 2030, an estimated 2.1 million skilled trades jobs could go unfilled, causing up to $1 trillion in annual economic losses.
- The engineering and construction industry faces a projected need for 499,000 new workers by 2026.
- Physical workers are needed to implement AI infrastructure, such as cell phone towers and EV charging stations.
The Lowe’s Foundation has launched the Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition, the largest cross-sector skilled trades coalition in U.S. history. Backed by over 75 partners - including corporate giants like Nvidia, AT&T, and General Motors - the national alliance aims to train and develop one million people for skilled trades careers by 2035. The initiative targets severe labor shortages in manufacturing, construction, and other skilled trades, where the U.S. Department of Education estimates up to 2.1 million jobs could go unfilled by 2030, causing potential economic losses of $1 trillion annually.
The initiative aims to combat a projected $1 trillion annual economic loss from unfilled skilled trades.
In their words
“But somebody will still be required to crawl under your sink and fix a leak, get your HVAC working, or do construction on a data center.”
“It’s completely brilliant because the backlog in AI, the bottleneck in AI, that is, is not going to be more computers, but the physical people to place them, the HVAC, the electricians”
By the numbers
- $250M
- Lowe's investment in jobs AI cannot replace
- 1M
- People the coalition aims to train by 2035
- 2.1M
- Skilled trades jobs that could go unfilled by 2030
- $1T
- Potential annual economic losses by 2030 from unfilled jobs
- 499,000
- Projected new workers needed in engineering and construction by 2026
How it unfolded
- Construction wages increase 4.2% year-over-year
- Deloitte projects construction labor shortage will intensify
- Estimated 2.1 million skilled trades jobs could go unfilled
- Lowe's coalition aims to train one million people
Turn stories like this into views
Ravenclip finds the Finance news, makes the video, and posts it before attention moves on.
Common questions
- What happened with Lowe’s Foundation?
- Lowe’s Foundation launched the Building Futures Skilled Trades Coalition to train one million people for skilled trades by 2035.
- Where can I read the original report?
- Read the full report at Thestreet.
