‘Silent Labour Emergency Alert in 2025: Anand Mahindra on the Crisis Beyond AI Job Losses’
The rise of AI is sparking fear about white-collar job losses, but Anand Mahindra warns of a much bigger and more urgent crisis: the severe shortage of skilled tradespeople. With thousands of high-paying roles going unfilled in the US—supported by warnings from Ford CEO Jim Farley and Elon Musk—this growing labour gap is reshaping the job market and redefining what future “dream jobs” may look like.
Why Anand Mahindra Calls It a ‘Silent Labour Emergency’ –
For many years, Mahindra mentioned, society has placed degrees and office jobs at the top of what people aspire to, while skilled trades have been pushed down to the bottom. This has led to a generation that is moving away from valuable, hands-on jobs.
While people are worried about AI taking away white-collar jobs, there is a more pressing issue that is already changing the job market — the serious lack of skilled tradespeople.
Anand Mahindra, the Chairman of Mahindra Group, raised this concern in a post on X, pointing out what he believes is a “much bigger crisis” than the job losses caused by AI: the significant shortage of trained workers in essential sectors that keep economies running.
He shared a report that included comments from Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley, and Mahindra emphasized that while society is busy discussing the future of white-collar jobs, the current situation is much more urgent. “We’re so focused on worrying that AI will eliminate white-collar jobs that we’re overlooking a much larger crisis: the lack of skilled trades,” he stated
A societal imbalance that has been building for decades
Mahindra highlighted that the gap in the labor market comes from cultural decisions. For many years, he said, society has favored degrees and office jobs over skilled trades. This has resulted in a generation that is moving away from important, hands-on careers.
However, ironically, these are the exact jobs that AI cannot take over — positions that need judgment, skill, real-world experience, and learning through apprenticeships.
Are we about to see a change in what society views as a dream job?” Mahindra questioned, suggesting that the true winners in the age of AI might not be programmers or business leaders, but those who can construct, fix, and maintain the world.
Millions of important jobs are empty
Farley recently shared that Ford has 5,000 mechanic positions open, many with salaries around $120,000 a year — but no one is applying. The issue is much bigger: across the US, over one million jobs in plumbing, electrical work, trucking, manufacturing, and factory operations are still unfilled.
Farley called it a “serious problem” for the country, warning that it’s not just a problem for one industry anymore. It’s now a national issue that affects manufacturing, emergency services, and important infrastructure.
Federal data backs up his worries. As of August, there are more than 400,000 manufacturing jobs available across the country, even though unemployment has risen to 4.3 percent — showing that the problem isn’t a lack of jobs, but rather a smaller number of trained workers.
Musk shares the concern
Elon Musk, the richest person in the world and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink, also spoke about the growing crisis. “America has a big shortage of people who can do tough physical work or who even want to train for it,” Musk said on November 17, adding his voice to the worry.
A new kind of revolution
In a surprising comparison, Mahindra mentioned Karl Marx, saying: “Marx thought workers would rise up through struggle. He never thought they’d rise because they became too skilled, too rare, and too important to replace.”
Mahindra described this change as a “revolution not through violence… but through value-discovery,” arguing that the growing scarcity and importance of skilled workers could change the job hierarchy around the world.
Source – Business Today
