Amidst the shock of President Trump’s announcement of global tariffs, a small yet crucial detail may have escaped some people’s attention.
Towards the end of his speech, President Trump remarked –
“We need more people. We need people to run these plants and to help the auto workers and the teamsters and the non-union people and everybody else, but we need people and the farmers. And we’re going to let people come in, but they want to come in. We want them to come in legally.”
Trying to “Make America Great Again” by bringing manufacturing back faces an inconvenient truth – The US does not have enough blue-collar workers to fulfil this vision.
In 2023, of the 168 million employed persons in the US, only 13.7% (or 23 million) worked in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, oil extraction, and construction. More than 80% of US workers are employed in the service sectors (retail, finance, healthcare, leisure, government, etc.), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And of the 6 million unemployed in the US in 2023, only one million were in the agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and construction sectors.
Executing the vision of making the US a great industrial power again will require a vast army of blue-collar workers. China is an industrial powerhouse, and 52% of its workforce is in industry and agriculture – on this benchmark, the US will need around 87 million workers in industry and agriculture. That is 64 million more than it currently has.
To re-industrialise the US, will those working in services shift to these non-service sectors? Highly unlikely, as these jobs pay lower wages.
So, “making America great again” also means making America a country that welcomes immigrants again (as it did during its period of rapid industrialisation from the late 1800s).
For a detailed analysis of the importance of immigration as the developed world experiences declining populations, read “The Age of Decay: How Aging and Shrinking Populations could Usher in the Decline of Civilization”.