SYLVIE DOUGLIS, BYLINE: NPR.
ADRIAN MA, HOST:
This is THE INDICATOR from Planet Money. I'm Adrian Ma.
DARIAN WOODS, HOST:
And I'm Darian Woods. And it is Jobs Friday.
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WOODS: It's that time of the month when we take the temperature of the American jobs market, and we see how the economy is working for everyday people. In August, 142,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy. That's a little on the soft side, especially given that previous months' jobs numbers were revised down. There were some bright spots though. Unemployment's ticked down slightly to 4.2%. Thirty-four thousand new construction jobs were created. And while manufacturing jobs were down last month, long term, the trades will be needed.
MA: And that's why today, we're going to focus on manufacturing jobs. According to a recent report by the consulting firm Deloitte, the U.S. manufacturing industry could need as many as 3.8 million new employees over the next decade. And yet about half those jobs could go unfilled.
WOODS: So it's a bit of a problem in need of some kind of solution. And when Darnell Epps learned about this projected labor shortage, his mind started racing.
DARNELL EPPS: It was, you know, kind of baffling to me. I learned that these jobs were very good-paying jobs. I couldn't, you know, understand why there was this labor shortage and this inability to find talent when there were so many people that were desperately in search of middle-class careers.
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WOODS: Darnell decided he wanted somehow to help bridge that gap. But at the time, Darnell was in his second year of law school at Yale.
MA: Yeah. While a lot of Darnell's classmates were thinking about getting judicial clerkships or maybe a second degree in business or medicine, Darnell took an unusual step of doing his law degree while learning a trade. Today on the show, Darnell explains why he went from studying law books in ivy-covered lecture halls to reading blueprints in machine-filled workshops.
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WOODS: So Darnell Epps became kind of obsessed with this problem. Manufacturing companies can't find enough skilled workers to fill open jobs. And there seemed to be lots of people out there that with a little training could do those jobs. Was there some way for him to bridge that gap?
MA: So he started talking with some investors who had experience with manufacturing startups. And one early idea they came up with was virtual reality skill training.
EPPS: We thought it would give more people access to sort of this hands-on experience that is needed to really - in some cases, to train effective technicians to fill these positions, right? At least that's what we thought. But after trying out all this different hardware, we kind of all got cyber sick. I didn't know if my son was running around, burning the house down while I had the Oculus on, and I - you know (laughter) - I was like, oh, no. You know, so this wasn't the answer.
MA: The Metaverse claims another dream.
WOODS: Yeah, back to the drawing board. But, you know, this failed foray into VR training led Darnell to another realization. He realized that he himself did not have a full understanding of the job market that he was trying to improve.
EPPS: And that's why I needed to go to trade school to really see for myself, like, what kind of positions these employers were looking to fill, and what are the skills needed to fill them?
WOODS: During his second year of law school, he enrolled in a vocational school, a local branch of Lincoln Tech.
EPPS: So I was, you know, reading Ginsburg opinions and Scalia opinions throughout the mornings, and then hopping in my car and doing a 50-minute commute at 12 o'clock after I scrambled to grab my lunch out of the Yale cafeteria and throwing on a uniform and some Timberland boots and running into the vocational classes, where I was learning to become a machinist.
WOODS: A machinist, by the way, is essentially a trade person that specializes in making metal parts, really precise parts that go in everything from cars and airplanes to tools and medical devices.
MA: And what was the first part Darnell made when he was learning this trade?
EPPS: I made a cool gavel. I have it somewhere. All right. Here we go.
MA: Whoa. That's the first thing you made?
WOODS: That's the first thing I made. Yeah.
MA: That's really nice.
EPPS: Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, you know, what you would see on - in a judge's chambers.
MA: But it's beautiful.
EPPS: Yeah.
MA: It's like - it's shiny.
EPPS: If I'm ever a judge, you know, this is what I will use, you know?
MA: Before you learned to be a machinist, would you have considered yourself, like, a handy person?
EPPS: Not at all. Not at all. My wife would typically laugh at me because I was so not handy.
WOODS: Darnell learned to read blueprints and operate metal cutting machines. He learned that a lot of advanced manufacturing jobs today require knowledge of software and math and even AI.
EPPS: It was fun, and it was rewarding. And I think, you know, it was there to really develop the deep appreciation for the work that a skilled workforce is doing.
WOODS: Going to trade school at the same time as law school also drove home for Darnell why many manufacturers say hiring is their biggest challenge.
EPPS: Kind of sobering because when I enrolled at Lincoln Tech, I went from having 50 or so students in my torts class at Yale to then going to my machining class at Lincoln Tech and only having two other people. So that just highlighted where we were with our priorities as a country, as a society. And...
MA: Are you saying, in effect, that we have enough lawyers...
EPPS: (Laughter) I mean...
MA: ...And not enough machinists?
EPPS: You know, what I'm saying is that we should have just as many machinists as we have lawyers, right? That ratio shouldn't be 50 to 2, right? Like, that is absurd, right?
WOODS: On a nationwide scale, the ratio of lawyers to machinists isn't quite that large. But there are, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, currently more than twice as many lawyers as machinists working today.
MA: And it's worth highlighting here that there's some big macro business trends also shaping the demand for manufacturing jobs. So remember how the pandemic clogged up global supply chains? Well, because of that, many U.S. companies have been looking to domestic manufacturers to try and shore up their supply chains. And right now, you also have the federal government investing billions of dollars to build things like clean energy infrastructure and semiconductor chip factories. The problem, Darnell says, is that if the workers aren't there to work in these plants, then these projects could become white elephants - grand, expensive and empty.
WOODS: Since graduating from law school and trade school, Darnell has started a company called Thurgood Industries, which is a nod to his legal hero, Thurgood Marshall. But the company's main product has nothing really to do with the law. Basically, it's an app - think LinkedIn if it were geared specifically towards manufacturing and construction jobs. And the goal here is sort of twofold - making it easier for employers to find potential workers and to make the trades more appealing to folks who might not have considered them.
EPPS: Part of the problem is societal because we've devalued what the trades do and how meaningful they are and the creativity.
MA: It's a marketing problem in a sense.
EPPS: Yeah, it's a marketing problem. So we want people...
MA: Yeah.
EPPS: ...To be able to see that. And I think, you know, too often, high schoolers are told that if you don't go to college, you know, you're a failure - right? - or that the career opportunities for you are going to be very limited. But there are alternatives in advanced manufacturing, and the trades are just that.
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WOODS: It's like alternative radio. You know, it's cooler, grungier. You get to wear a black T-shirt.
MA: Does - do we count as alternative radio? I mean, we're like - you know, podcasts are an alternative to radio.
WOODS: No. We are not alternative radio. I'm wearing a beige T-shirt. Not...
MA: (Laughter).
WOODS: No heavy metal slogans here.
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WOODS: This episode was produced by Cooper Katz McKim with engineering by Cena Loffredo and Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez. I was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Concannon edits the show, and THE INDICATOR is a production of NPR.
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