Mike Rowe Warns Of One Potential Issue Trump Could Face If His Tariff Plan Works

“Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe said on Tuesday that if President Donald Trump’s tariffs cause manufacturing jobs to return to America, those positions will be hard to fill.

Rowe told podcaster Theo Von on his show, “This Past Weekend,” that there are numerous unfilled jobs in the manufacturing industry, which could cause issues if companies relocate more of these positions to the U.S. He expressed doubt that the tariffs will successfully cause workers to apply for these types of jobs, which could cause even more vacancies in the manufacturing industry.

“If, in general, [Trump] gets manufacturing reinvigorated in this country, then there’s gonna be a challenge that a lot of people aren’t talking about, which is labor,” Rowe said. “So, in January there were 482,000 open positions in manufacturing in this country, 480,000 open positions. If he gets his way and this all gets reinvigorated. You’re talking about 2 or 3 million new jobs, but there’s no workforce sitting there going, ‘this is what I want to do.’ They’re not prepared. There’s a skilled gap for sure, but there’s also a will gap.”

“Donald Trump is going down a road, and if he succeeds, he’s going to create millions of manufacturing jobs in a country that currently has 500,000 manufacturing jobs open because the people who run those factories can’t find people who want to do the work. So it’s not enough to create the jobs,” Rowe continued. (RELATED: Mike Rowe Goes Off On America’s Skilled Labor Shortage, Says He ‘Isn’t Surprised’)

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Although the manufacturing industry has largely recovered from losing roughly 1.4 million jobs during the COVID pandemic, a total of 622,000 jobs were left opened as of January 2024, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The number of unemployed workers with experience also exceeds the number of available job openings in the industry.

The U.S. skilled labor force has faced a significant shortage, with participation rates for 16 to 24-year-olds dropping below pre-pandemic levels, according to McKinsey. A survey of 1,000 US-based 18- to 20-year-olds found that 74% perceive a stigma with choosing vocational school over attending a four-year college.

Rowe said that young adults have no interest in joining the blue collar workforce because they were not exposed to the industry in school, instead being told they needed to attend college.

“The bigger issue still is there’s no enthusiasm for the work. We took shop class out of high school, we robbed kids of the opportunity to even see what that kind of work even looks like and then we told a whole generation of kids that they’re fricken screwed if they didn’t get a four-year degree,” Rowe told Vonn.

The “Dirty Jobs” host further noted that 6.8 million able-bodied men are not looking for these positions, leaving many positions in the industry vacant.

Trump implemented reciprocal tariffs on April 2, which he deemed “Liberation Day,” with the intent of companies returning manufacturing jobs to the U.S. and to establish fairer trade with foreign countries. With the number of vacant manufacturing positions, Rowe said there will have to be more policy changes that extend beyond tariffs in order to successfully return manufacturing to the U.S.

“Something, beyond the tariffs, something beyond policy is gonna have to happen to make 22-year-olds go ‘yeah man, I would consider doing that,” Rowe continued.

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