Mike Rowe – 7.5 Million Open Jobs and the Collapse of Work in America | SRS #319
Mike Rowe is an Emmy Award-winning television host, producer, narrator, bestselling author, and podcast host best known for creating and hosting the long-running TV series Dirty Jobs. Through his work, he has highlighted the importance of skilled trades and vocational careers across America. As founder of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, he has helped award millions of dollars in scholarships and championed efforts to bring shop classes back to schools. He also hosts the popular podcast The Way I Heard It, where he shares stories and interviews with entrepreneurs, tradespeople, and other remarkable individuals. Over a career spanning more than three decades, Rowe has become one of America’s most recognizable advocates for hard work, opportunity, and the skilled trades.
Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkoujZQZatbqy4KGcgjpVxQ/join
Shawn Ryan Show Links
SUBSCRIBE: http://www.youtube.com/@ShawnRyanShow
Sign up: https://shawnryanshow.com/pages/newsletter
Support the Show: https://www.patreon.com/VigilanceElite
Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shawn-ryan-show/id1492492083
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5eodRZd3qR9VT1ip1wI7xQ?si=59f9d106e56a4509
Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnryanshow
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shawnryanshow/
Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shawnryanshow/
Follow on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/@shawnryanshow
Follow on X: https://twitter.com/ShawnRyanShow
SRS Podcast Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4pqo9Uoh0WuUKxw0BmaK1yrg9Kd7E4lk
#vigilanceelite #shawnryanshow
Mike Rowe Links:
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mikerowe
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/TheRealMikeRowe
X – https://x.com/mikeroweworks
Tik Tok – https://www.tiktok.com/@therealmikerowe
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/@therealmikerowe
Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors:
Get 50% off your first order of Sundays for Dogs at https://sundaysfordogs.com/SRS50 or use code SRS50 at checkout.
Start therapy with BetterHelp and get 10% off at https://betterhelp.com/srs. #ad
Get 20% off Rho Liposomal NAD+ at https://rhonutrition.com/discount/SRS with code SRS; risk-free 60-day money-back guarantee.
Go to https://helixsleep.com/SRS for 20% off sitewide.
Save time and meet great candidates sooner with ZipRecruiterātry it for FREE at https://ziprecruiter.com/SRS.
00:00 Welcome and Introduction
21:00 The American Dream & Skilled Trades
37:04 Empathy, Storytelling & Perspective
52:29 Fixing America’s Skills Gap
1:05:43 Work Ethic & Building the Workforce
1:17:20 The Education System & Shop Class
1:30:04 Media, Character & Identity
1:45:34 Suicide Prevention & Life After Service
1:55:22 Losing Everything & Starting Over
2:12:07 Freedom to Fail & Finding Opportunity
2:25:38 The Million-Dollar Trades Career
2:38:42 Immigration, Labor & Energy
2:50:22 Recruiting the Next Generation
3:02:24 AI, Dangerous Jobs & Dirty Jobs Stories
3:15:08 Shark Suits, Near Misses & Wild Adventures
vigilance elite,shawn ryan,shawn ryan show,the shawn ryan show,shawn ryan podcast,podcast,srs,podcast show
Published by DK ExpressionsĀ®
And what are these 7.5 mill jobs paying?
1:39:50 Folks, Mike means we’ll but he’s wrong on the eye of the needle. I’ve studied Scripture for 30 years. I have studied that passage ad noseum and it’s a not door. It’s a needle and it is meant to be impossible.
I think Mike brought a sleeping bag and was ready to stay couple three days lol
Why donāt you have a kid, Mike? Build America great again. lol in a black rock home
I can’t save money even with a CDL because the industry has been flooded with people from all over the planet and maybe will one day before i die i can maybe buy a home for my kids to pay off. So ill shut up, work harder ,dont be entitled,don’t pay attention to what is happening in the world, just grind and be happy with these trash companies that use TF out of you and why don’t i know algebra, got itš«”š¤”
Thanks!
mike rowe rules. man I really am nostalgic for early 2000’s discovery channel, that had to have been peak !
Gawd I love Mike Rowe. ā¤
Tell your daughters to be welders.
Hey Shawn, can you have Brandon Tatum and Andrew Wilson on your show?
Mike ill work for you to train fiber optic specialists
Listening to a boomer who bought a home for like nothing, went to school for nothing lecture me about work ethic and entitlement is funnyšš«”š¤”š¤”š¤”
No edjamactions outside of HS, military vet and a 26 year railroad freight conductor. Broke 200k last year working damn near every day and paid the house off and built a pole barn for the IMCA stock cars. Love MR
There seems to be a not coincedental number of triangles and one eye signs in that intro lol. Still a good episode though. Thanks!
Found out Mike went to the same high school as me. Overlea high school in Baltimore county
I love Mike Rowe. Baltimore native
When will you sit with the “Secretary of Peace?”
1:10:22
I would argue that those alot of those 7 million jobs aren’t paying enough to live. Those young men don’t have any incentive to take them. Draw unemployment and make a similar amount and do whatever they want.
š¤š¼šŗšøš¤š¼Great show Shawn ! š¤š¼šŗšøš¤š¼
I’ve been working in the trades since 1995. This is just my opinion of the current situation.
Companies want top level people but want to pay them entry level wages. I’ve seen that first hand. When companies try recruiting me my first question is always “What’s the pay?” Over 99% of the time I turn them down because the pay they are offering is what I was making twenty years ago. They don’t want to train new people and they don’t want to pay experienced people. That’s why the jobs aren’t getting filled. The problem has gotten this bad because the apprentice programs were shutdown in these companies. Bring them back now or be short staffed forever.
Next is the culture. Who builds and maintains 99% of our infrastructure? Men. What motivated men? Women.
Well working in the trades I’ve been dismissed by women because of my profession. I’ve been called names like “Dusty” and every woman assumed I was broke because of my profession.
Change the female perception of men in the trades and more men will want to be in the trades.
Change the company mindset on training and entry level pay. That will attract men and help change the female perception of men in the trades.
Women and money have motivated men to do these jobs for centuries. Now the women don’t want them and the companies don’t want to pay them enough to live.
A conversation I had with a younger man.
“Why don’t you want to work?”
Him “Why go to work when the pay won’t give me a better life then not working?”
“Eventually it will if you stay with it”
Him “I can make more working fast food then walking into a shop”
“Eventually you can make six figures”
Him “Eventually is to far away. If I have to risk my life/health today then I expect to be paid for it today. I’m not doing it for a promise I’ll do better eventually.”
I can’t say he was wrong. Walking into a semi trailer shop without experience means you don’t get the job or you get it while making $15 an hour. Gas stations and fast food are paying entry level more than that. If a young man can’t afford to rent a place close to work, buy a car, afford dating/hobbies, and invest for retirement on the pay given from day one then they refuse to show up.
In the last 25 years the cost of living has increased 3x and wages have increased less than 2x. People are hopeless.
I love Mikeās, always go to Welding. š. You gotta breathe poison . Maybe get electrocuted, hard-working most cases the American dream boy.
When I was younger..after a long day at work..it was time for a beer at your local watering hole..then impaired driving laws ,then well letās spark one up , then f..k it Monday was an extension of Friday .then Tuesday cause whoās gonna pull u over on Tuesday..etc etc LAWYERS HAVE DESTROYED THE WORLD..
Hi Mike and Shawn. Two of my favorites.
Stimulate the workforce make marriage Mandatory!! the women will drive the man to make those six figures.
1:54 hours in the answer to get the next generation into the trades.
The truth is Corporate Greed….
Nobody wants to pay for skilled labor.
Also Gen X raised a bunch of Poke mon pussys young guys literally cannot even cut the grass or run a weed eater. Take out the trash. Change a tire, NOTHING..
So Shawn, when ARE you gonna do Mikes podcast, or ANYones actually lol!š
Shawn, would love to see you interview your spanish framer. Hear his story.
A car costs 100,000 dollars, you won’t get rich if you work for someone else….
24:00 when the āAmerican Dreamā is immediately described as āyou can come here from anywhere and work hardā we have a PROBLEM. the American Dream should be followed by a statement about the American PEOPLE; not how immigrants can come here without speaking english and manage to build a 5 crew company through economic immigration. What a bonkers reality! imagine me saying: the Ugandan Dream is to have people come from anywhere in the world and work hard and be able to live a great lifeā the people of Uganda would look at me like i was CRAZY. Youāre applauding a hispanic man for being willing to work on Easter Sunday? Are you kidding me? absolutely disgusting. just replace us with AI already, and stop pretending like you care about the āworking class.ā
I’m a 100% disabled vet and have to live on 4,000 a month…we need to treat disabled vets better….number one.
A lot of the resentment comes from how quickly the cost of living has outpaced what ordinary jobs can support. For many people who are in their 20s today, it feels like the rules changed within a single generation.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a household with a teacher and a police officer could often afford to buy a home, own a reliable car or two, raise children, and still have money left over for things like vacations, hobbies, or a family pet. Housing prices were generally around three to four times the median household income in many parts of the United States.
Today, in many areas, that same home costs six to eight times the median household income, and in some high cost regions itās even more. At the same time, essential expenses like rent, childcare, healthcare, college tuition, and insurance have risen much faster than wages. While incomes have increased in dollar terms, they often havenāt kept pace with the cost of buying a home or building the same kind of middle class life.
As a result, a teacher and a police officer starting out today may find themselves renting instead of owning, delaying having children, driving older vehicles because new ones are too expensive, and thinking twice before taking on the cost of a pet. It isnāt necessarily because theyāre making poor financial decisions. For many, itās because maintaining the standard of living that was once considered ordinary now requires significantly more income and often far more hours of work than it did a generation ago.
I just plain like Mike Rowe.
When I grow up, Mike, I wanna work in a robot factory because I donāt wanna work after the robots are here.
The Mexican guy Shawn hired undercut his competitors with illegal labour and probably didn’t pay taxes on the job.
1:30:20….
“That Play”…
Like that modest group of people, who gathered in that narrow neighborhood street, of that small coastal town, to watch an absolutely magnificent sunset….( Cambria, California 2003).
That feeling of being one of a few to witness something brief, magical, unrepeatable. Destroying, “That Play,” was like simulating a natural event….Pretty Cool idea.
Mike and I go back like my hairline
AWS D1.1 Certified Welder here! Shoot me a gov contract!
I love Mikeās BDE. Crazy sexy.
I could listen to him read the phone book with some occasional dry witty commentary.
Heās correct that curiosity is the key to a good life.
TOLD YA CUZ MIKES.. HE DON’T DREESS WORTH A SHITTS
After Candace’s insane ramblings, we needed this.
I’ve been a fan of Mike for a while but man the boomer delusion is so dense. Completely ignores the millennials that have spent many years building a skill set or resume under a career path but have lost their jobs for many reasons including AI.
Not only that many if not most trade skill jobs offer higher earnings through overtime and those “mid 6 figure jobs” aren’t entry-mid level.
Many high paying jobs have gone to H1B visas, decade of outsourcing and already seeing that with AI. FROM the people he mentioned like Fink, Zuckerberg, etc.
Sorry for the rant but boomers piss me off with this crap. Middle class is gone and boomers should explore that and they’ll probably scrap against the answers on why birth rates are so low.
My husbands and Iās favorite celeb šMike Rowe because heās the anti-celeb
Awesome ! Unexpected guest, Mike Rowe is a legend !
Fabulous interview
Making unions illegal would drastically improve the trades.
Lol š cheesecake factory their menu is like a history book lol š¤£
Why I like going to Trader Joeās . Simple, friendly, sm selection, great marketing. Joes premise was to limit selections, keep it simple and romance it. Trader Joe has a great story.
Mike Rowe…you I tune into! Candace not. Mike Rowe…you inspire and humor. Thanks Shaun for going out there. Don’t beat yourself up. Only one of the few shows I’ll listen to for 3 hrs…pick and choosing of course.