{"slug": "google-and-ford-are-funding-a-push-into-the-trades-the-jobs-their-ai-cant-do", "title": "Google and Ford are funding a push into the trades, the jobs their AI can’t do", "summary": "Google, Ford, BlackRock, and Carhartt have formed the Alliance for America's Skilled Trades to address a projected 2.1 million unfilled skilled-trade jobs by 2030, including 130,000 electrical workers and over 350,000 auto technicians. The alliance aims to expand apprenticeships and partnerships, even as Google's AI tools contribute to white-collar job cuts, highlighting the tension between automation and the need for physical infrastructure workers.", "body_md": "The four companies announced the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades on Tuesday. The pitch is a labour shortage. The subtext is harder to miss.\n\n## The number behind it\n\nEmployers cannot find enough electricians, technicians, and builders. The alliance [puts](https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/newsroom/press-releases/article/corporate-one/press-releases/alliance-americas-skilled-trades) the gap at 2.1 million unfilled skilled-trade jobs by 2030, across manufacturing, infrastructure, and energy. It counts 130,000 more electrical workers needed by 2030, and over 350,000 auto technicians by 2029.\n\nThe founders say they have already backed skilled-workforce programmes across 30 states. The new group is meant to pull those efforts together.\n\n## What it will do\n\nThe plan has three parts, the companies told [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/21/blackrock-carhartt-ford-google-skilled-trades.html). Build the pipeline with awareness campaigns and clearer routes in. Scale apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, backed by a data report with Burning Glass and Jobs for the Future. And widen partnerships with unions, colleges, and non-profits.\n\nWriting in [Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/07/21/blackrock-ford-google-carhartt-skilled-trades-alliance/), the four founders framed it as building America’s future, not just filling jobs. Ford needs technicians. So, increasingly, does everyone else.\n\n## The irony up front\n\nThe line-up is the story. Google’s AI tools are helping companies thin their white-collar ranks, a shift its [own staff](https://thenextweb.com/news/google-workers-rally-job-security) have protested. JPMorgan’s chief executive says AI has already cut [30 to 40%](https://thenextweb.com/news/jpmorgan-dimon-ai-jobs-cuts-margins-q2-earnings) of jobs in some units. Verizon is [shedding](https://thenextweb.com/news/verizon-3000-retail-layoffs-store-reorganization) 3,000 retail roles.\n\nYet Google is also one of the largest builders of data centres, and it needs tradespeople to raise them. Building the physical infrastructure “requires significantly increasing the pipeline of skilled tradespeople,” said Ruth Porat, Alphabet and Google’s president and chief investment officer.\n\nAgainst that, the trades look safe. No model can wire a house, climb a pylon, or fix a transmission line. A [degree](https://thenextweb.com/news/hassabis-stem-degree-ai-computer-science) plus AI is powerful, but someone still has to build the physical world.\n\n## The catch\n\nRead the small print and the tension sharpens. The AI boom is not just competing with the trades for attention. It is competing for the workers themselves. Every [data centre](https://thenextweb.com/news/data-centre-protests-go-national-backlash), substation, and power line the industry is racing to build needs the very electricians and technicians already in short supply.\n\nThe alliance is also voluntary, with no single funding figure attached, and awareness campaigns have a mixed record. But the shortage is real, and apprenticeship money is concrete. The odd part is who is paying for it: the same firms whose technology is reshaping work now betting on the jobs it cannot touch.\n\n## Get the TNW newsletter\n\nGet the most important tech news in your inbox each week.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-and-ford-are-funding-a-push-into-the-trades-the-jobs-their-ai-cant-do", "canonical_source": "https://thenextweb.com/news/google-and-ford-are-funding-a-push-into-the-trades-the-jobs-their-ai-cant-do", "published_at": "2026-07-22 10:17:06+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-22 10:59:14.029424+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy", "ai-ethics", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["Google", "Ford", "BlackRock", "Carhartt", "Alliance for America's Skilled Trades", "Ruth Porat", "CNBC", "Fortune"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-and-ford-are-funding-a-push-into-the-trades-the-jobs-their-ai-cant-do", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-and-ford-are-funding-a-push-into-the-trades-the-jobs-their-ai-cant-do.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-and-ford-are-funding-a-push-into-the-trades-the-jobs-their-ai-cant-do.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/google-and-ford-are-funding-a-push-into-the-trades-the-jobs-their-ai-cant-do.jsonld"}}