This is THE INDICATOR from Planet Money. I'm Adrian Ma. And I'm Darian Woods. And it is Jobs Friday.
这里是THE INDICATOR from Planet Money。我是Adrian Ma。我是Darian Woods。今天是Jobs Friday。
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.
每月的这个时候,我们都会了解美国就业市场的温度,看看经济对普通民众的影响。
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.
8月份,美国经济新增了142000个就业岗位。这个数字略显疲软,尤其是考虑到前几个月的就业人数被下调了。
There were some bright spots though. Unemployment's ticked down slightly to 4.2%.
不过也有一些亮点。失业率小幅下降至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.
新增了34000个建筑行业岗位。虽然上个月制造业就业岗位有所减少,但从长远来看,这些行业还是需要的。
And that's why today, we're going to focus on manufacturing jobs.
这就是我们今天要关注制造业就业的原因。
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.
根据咨询公司德勤最近的一份报告,美国制造业在未来十年可能需要多达380万名新员工。然而,大约一半的职位可能无人填补。
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.
所以这是一个需要某种解决方案的问题。当Darnell Epps了解到预计的劳动力短缺时,他的思绪开始飞速运转。
It was, you know, kind of baffling to me. I learned that these jobs were very good-paying jobs.
这对我来说有点令人困惑。我了解到这些工作都是薪水很高的工作。
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.
我无法理解为什么会有这种劳动力短缺和找不到人才的情况,而有这么多人迫切地寻找中产阶级的职业。
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.
Darnell决定以某种方式帮助弥补这一差距。但当时,Darnell正在耶鲁大学法学院读二年级。
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.
当Darnell的许多同学都在考虑获得司法书记员职位或商业或医学第二学位时,Darnell采取了不同寻常的举措,在学习一门手艺的同时攻读法律学位。
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.
在今天的节目中,Darnell解释了他为什么从在常春藤覆盖的演讲厅里研读法律书籍,到在挤满机器的车间里阅读蓝图。
So Darnell Epps became kind of obsessed with this problem. Manufacturing companies can't find enough skilled workers to fill open jobs.
Darnell Epps对这个问题有点痴迷。制造公司找不到足够的熟练工人来填补空缺职位。
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?
似乎有很多人只要经过一点培训就可以做这些工作。他有办法弥补这个差距吗?
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.
于是他开始与一些有制造业初创公司经验的投资者交谈。他们提出的一个早期想法是虚拟现实技能培训。
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?
我们认为这将使更多人获得这种实践经验,而这种经验对于培训有效的技术人员来填补这些职位是必要的,对吗?
At least that's what we thought. But after trying out all this different hardware, we kind of all got cyber sick.
至少我们是这么想的。但在尝试了所有这些不同的硬件之后,我们都有点晕机了。
I didn't know if my son was running around, burning the house down while I had the Oculus on, and I - you know - I was like, oh, no. You know, so this wasn't the answer.
我不知道我戴着Oculus的时候我儿子是不是到处乱跑,把房子烧了,我当时想,哦,不。所以这不是答案。
The Metaverse claims another dream. 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.
Metaverse宣称又一个梦想。回到绘图板上。但是这次失败的VR培训尝试让Darnell有了另一个认识。他意识到自己并不完全了解他试图改善的就业市场。
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?
这就是为什么我需要去职业学校亲眼看看,比如,这些雇主希望填补什么样的职位,以及填补这些职位需要什么技能?
During his second year of law school, he enrolled in a vocational school, a local branch of Lincoln Tech.
在法学院二年级时,他就读于一所职业学校,这是林肯技术学院的当地分校。
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
我每天早上都在阅读金斯伯格和斯卡利亚的意见,然后在12点的时候,
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.
我匆忙地从耶鲁食堂拿了午餐,穿上制服和Timberland靴子,跑进职业班,花50分钟的时间通勤,在那里我学习成为一名机械师。
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.
顺便说一句,机械师本质上是一个专门制造金属零件的贸易人员,这些零件非常精密,从汽车、飞机到工具和医疗设备,应有尽有。
And what was the first part Darnell made when he was learning this trade? I made a cool gavel. I have it somewhere. All right. Here we go.
Darnell在学习这门手艺时做的第一个零件是什么?我做了一个很酷的木槌。我把它放在某个地方。
Whoa. That's the first thing you made? That's the first thing I made. Yeah. That's really nice. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, you know, what you would see on - in a judge's chambers.
哇哦。这是你做的第一件东西?这是我做的第一件东西。那真的很棒,就像你在法官办公室里看到的那样。
But it's beautiful. Yeah. It's like - it's shiny. If I'm ever a judge, you know, this is what I will use, you know?
但它很漂亮。是的。它闪闪发光。如果我当法官,这就是我要用的。
Before you learned to be a machinist, would you have considered yourself, like, a handy person? Not at all. Not at all. My wife would typically laugh at me because I was so not handy.
在你学会做机械师之前,你会认为自己是一个能干的人吗?一点也不。一点也不。我妻子通常会嘲笑我,因为我太不灵巧了。
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.
Darnell学会了阅读蓝图和操作金属切割机。他了解到,如今许多先进的制造业工作都需要软件、数学甚至人工智能方面的知识。
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.
这很有趣,也很有回报。我认为它能培养出对熟练劳动力所做工作的深刻理解。
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.
同时就读职业学校和法学院也让Darnell深刻理解了为什么许多制造商认为招聘是他们面临的最大挑战。
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.
这有点令人警醒,因为当我就读林肯技术学院时,耶鲁大学的侵权法课上有50名左右的学生,而林肯技术学院的机械加工课上只有另外两名学生。
So that just highlighted where we were with our priorities as a country, as a society. And...
这恰恰凸显了我们作为一个国家、作为一个社会所面临的当务之急。
Are you saying, in effect, that we have enough lawyers... I mean... ...And not enough machinists?
你是说,实际上我们有足够的律师,而没有足够的机械师?
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?
我的意思是我们应该拥有与律师一样多的机械师,对吗?这个比例不应该是50比2,对吗?这太荒谬了,对吗?
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.
在全国范围内,律师与机械师的比例并没有那么大。但根据劳工统计局的数据,目前在职的律师数量是机械师的两倍多。
And it's worth highlighting here that there's some big macro business trends also shaping the demand for manufacturing jobs.
值得一提的是,一些宏观商业趋势也在影响制造业岗位的需求。
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.
还记得疫情如何堵塞了全球供应链吗?正因为如此,许多美国公司一直在寻求国内制造商来巩固其供应链。
And right now, you also have the federal government investing billions of dollars to build things like clean energy infrastructure and semiconductor chip factories.
目前,联邦政府还投资了数十亿美元来建设清洁能源基础设施和半导体芯片工厂。
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.
Darnell说,问题是,如果没有工人来这些工厂工作,那么这些项目可能会成为无用之物——宏伟、昂贵而空洞。
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.
自法学院和职业学校毕业以来,Darnell创办了一家名为Thurgood Industries的公司,致敬他的法律英雄瑟古德·马歇尔。
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.
但该公司的主要产品与法律无关。基本上,它是一款应用程序——想想领英,如果它专门针对制造业和建筑业工作的话。
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.
这里的目标有两方面——让雇主更容易找到潜在员工,让这些行业对那些可能没有考虑过的人更有吸引力。
Part of the problem is societal because we've devalued what the trades do and how meaningful they are and the creativity.
问题的一部分是社会性的,因为我们低估了这些行业的作用、意义和创造力。
It's a marketing problem in a sense. Yeah, it's a marketing problem. So we want people... Yeah.
从某种意义上说,这是一个营销问题。是的,这是一个营销问题。所以我们希望人们……是的。
...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.
希望人们能够看到这一点。我认为,高中生经常被告知,如果你不上大学,你就是一个失败者,或者你的职业机会将非常有限。
But there are alternatives in advanced manufacturing, and the trades are just that.
但先进制造业有其他选择,而这些行业就是其中之一。
It's like alternative radio. You know, it's cooler, grungier. You get to wear a black T-shirt.
这就像另类电台。它更酷,更邋遢。你可以穿黑色T恤。
Does - do we count as alternative radio? I mean, we're like - you know, podcasts are an alternative to radio. No. We are not alternative radio. I'm wearing a beige T-shirt. Not... No heavy metal slogans here.
我们算另类电台吗?播客是电台的替代品。不。我们不是另类电台。我穿着米色T恤。这里没有重金属口号。