Ford service bays aren’t supposed to be quiet places. A lift sitting empty despite two-week turnaround times feels wrong. Like a diner filled with hungry patrons, and no grill running.

Yet that’s where the automaker finds itself. The company can’t fill thousands of mechanic jobs that should already be humming along, and the person sounding the alarm is the guy running the whole show.

CEO Jim Farley explained on a recent episode of the “Office Hours: Business Edition” podcast that Ford has roughly 5,000 open mechanic positions. The pay is strong at $120,000 a year.

Even so, he said the company can’t get enough qualified people to take the roles. He called it a national problem that goes far beyond Ford.

Farley pointed to more than 1,000,000 mechanic openings across emergency services, trucking, manufacturing, and skilled trades

This is the same shortage I wrote about when covering the Secret Service’s appearance at AAPEX 2025.

They showed up with armored Chevy Suburbans and a recruiting team because even they can’t find enough ASE-certified techs.

Their fleets rely on specialists who understand advanced electronics, diagnostics, and the unique security demands of presidential vehicles.

If the Secret Service needs help keeping its cars alive, the situation has gone well past an automaker’s problem.

The Ford CEO framed it as a serious, structural issue in the United States workforce

Farley said it takes about five years of training and hands-on experience to learn how to pull a diesel engine from a Super Duty. But the country isn’t producing enough people with that capability. 

He blamed the hollowing out of trade education and said the nation has failed to invest in a new generation of workers who could make a solid living in these roles.

To help, Ford rolled out a $4 million scholarship program for aspiring technicians, but Farley said the pipeline still isn’t close to keeping up

Industry voices outside Ford agree. Rich Garrity of the National Association of Manufacturers told the New York Post that companies are not just short on “workers.”

They’re short on subject matter experts who understand the blend of manual and digital skills modern manufacturing demands.

Robotics, automation, EV components, and additive manufacturing all move faster than most community college programs can update their classrooms. He said many schools offer good foundational training, but they lag behind industry technology.

And the broader numbers validate these concerns.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted more than 400,000 open manufacturing jobs in August 

The automotive sector alone sees an annual deficit of about 37,000 trained technicians, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association.

The BLS expects nearly 68,000 openings for automotive mechanics each year through 2033. 

Much of that demand stems from retirements. Baby boomers are leaving faster than younger workers are replacing them.

There are signs of change

Trade school enrollment jumped 16% last year. But wages and interest only go so far without an education system that matches today’s tech. The market demand is there, and the nation’s average car is aging, requiring more maintenance and repairs. New car tech is getting more complex. And the mechanics who know how to fix it all are retiring faster than anyone can replace them.

A Ford dealership with a lift, tools, and six-figure pay should never sit idle, yet that’s what’s happening across the country.