Drew Crowe, a tattooed 30-something with gold teeth and diamond encrusted chains around his neck, is making the next stop on his Notorious MFG Tour. Aided by his DJ companion, a laser light show and a smoke machine, hents the stage in an Illinois high school auditorium and begins to hype up a crowd of teenagers.
Crowe isn’t a musician supporting an album. He’s a self-proclaimed leader of the “New American Manufacturing Renaissance.” Previously an instructor at Ranken Technical College in St. Louis, today he makes his living touring the country telling young people about the benefits of a career in manufacturing.
“I’m a convicted felon,” explains Crowe. “Society, family, everyone wrote me off. But manufacturing gave me a shot when nobody else would. I just want other people to know what’s possible.”
Crowe’s services are desperately needed. After decades of decline, American manufacturing is making a comeback—and it needs workers. To attract young talent, the industry is overhauling its image, pitching factory jobs as high-tech, high-opportunity careers. Influencers like Crowe, along with technical schools and nonprofits, are leading the charge to reshape perceptions.
“We’re just not putting it in the right places for people to see it as a viable career,” says Crowe.
This disconnect couldn’t come at a worse time. After decades of policies that incentivized companies to manufacture goods in countries like China where labor was cheaper, the last two presidential administrations have both tried to encourage more domestic manufacturing. Today, companies like Apple, Ford, Tesla, and Ultium Cells are making considerable investments to onshore their manufacturing and supply chains. According to the most recently available data, there were 1,702 planned industrial manufacturing projects under construction in the United States.
“We’re hiring pretty aggressively, especially across the southeast,” says Brandon Porter, a site manager at Gray Construction. The firm is currently helping to build 141 factories across 41 states. Their list of clients includes leading producers of next generation technologies like solar panels and batteries, along with a laundry list of major car companies aiming to build the next generation of electric vehicles like Toyota, Mazda, BMW, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz.
Even with all this investment, experts remain skeptical about a major resurgence in manufacturing employment. Both globally and in the United States, the number of manufacturing jobs may have already peaked. High labor costs, a shortage of skilled workers, and demographic headwinds like an aging workforce and reduced immigration pose significant challenges. Compounding the problem is a widespread perception among young Americans that factory work offers little appeal. As a result, the industry is scrambling to find new ways to fill its ranks.
“We have to go younger,” says Toni Neary, head of workforce development at the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of manufacturing careers. “We lose young girls off the STEM cliff by second or third grade.” Neary says SME is experimenting with ways to convince children as young as kindergarten to start thinking about careers in manufacturing.
Like all industries trying to reach young people, today there’s an app for that. Thurgood is a social networking app created to facilitate connections between trades people. After creating a profile, users are encouraged to show off what they’re working on and trade industry knowledge. Founder and CEO Darnelle Epps says the lack of a digital community has been a major reason why young people have been gravitating away from the trades.
“They just don’t see potential for advancement,” observes Epps. “The former CEO of Intel was a Lincoln Tech graduate, but a Lincoln Tech student wouldn’t have the apparatus to reach out to him.”
To increase visibility and appeal to a younger crowd, the manufacturing industry is supporting influencers who they feel can relate more closely to Generation Z. Crowe, a fast-talking, tattooed 30-something with gold teeth and heavy jewelry, has become a kind of pied piper for Gen Zers wary of traditional college debt but eager to advance in terms of lifestyle. His social media accounts mix motivational mantras with job tips, memes, and tutorials on everything from MIG welding to managing money. He also keeps his followers abreast of stops on his American Manufacturing Renaissance Tour.
“The message that we’re sending isn’t in a language that they’re going to respond to,” says Crowe, who believes more visibility would help sell these careers to young people. “If you look at the promotional material for manufacturing careers at technical schools it’s always some old dude, or a machine cutting chips. But there’s not a lot that will show you what a day in a shop actually looks like.”
Crowe himself likes to tell the story of his first job as a machinist where he was able to cut pieces of metal that would eventually form the body of a fighter jet. “That’s when it really clicked for me, like, ‘Wow, I’m doing something special.’ I’m just trying to help other people get there.”
The message may be starting to click for other members of Crowe’s age cohort.
Kathy Walker, Founder and Director of the east Kentucky Advanced Manufacturing Institute (eKAMI), says she doesn’t have enough room for all the young people applying to her program.
“The next two classes are already full,” says Walker. “We actually have to turn people away.”
One recent graduate of eKAMI is Fernando Morales, former marine who now uses skills he learned in the military as a maintenance technician at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. Morales worked as a drone operator in the military. This led him to pursue training in robotics after he left.
Morales says he is quite happy with his decision to transition to a career in advanced manufacturing. “Not many people with my background can say they are married, have zero debt and get stock options at work,” says the 27 year old.
Walker says she thinks other members of his generation will soon follow. “People want dignity, they wanna work, they want purpose,” says Walker. “What could be cooler than working in automation?”