Last week I met an old friend for coffee. Like so many of those conversations, work quickly became the focal point. He’s in manufacturing and had just returned from a training program his employer sends workers to twice a year. The goal is to connect with others in the industry, learn new things, and expand networks.
He went late last year, right after the 2024 presidential election, and again this past month. Looking back, he recalled how much excitement there was around manufacturing as a bigger piece of the U.S. economic puzzle. People across the political spectrum felt hopeful — even if for completely different reasons.
This time was different. Nine months later, he said the mood was dread, and it had nothing to do with headlines about the Trump administration.
“People have no idea what manufacturing looks like today,” he told me. “It’s so technical, there’s so much computerization, and frankly, so much training that’s needed to complete even the most basic tasks.”
He explained that there are people who understand this reality and people who don’t—and that divide shapes how optimistic or pessimistic they are about manufacturing’s role. The optimists, he said, often ignore the costs of bringing new workers up to speed. Beyond years of training, those workers need wages that match the skill involved.
The truth is there are no “simple” manufacturing jobs anymore. Coverage of manufacturing’s place in the economy often misses this fact.
Those who promote manufacturing as the centerpiece of the economy want a direct pipeline to work. They imagine a throwback to when a young person — or someone laid off in their 30s or 40s — could walk into a factory, be productive by day three, and stay until retirement.
But reality is different. Even the most basic manufacturing jobs today require computer knowledge. My friend said he encounters people from their late teens to their late 50s who can’t perform simple functions on a computer. His colleagues report the same, even as companies invest more in U.S. production.
“If you can’t type, if you don’t know how to navigate a Word document or spreadsheet, or even change the background on a Windows PC, you’ll need a lot of training before you ever touch the actual job,” he said. That gap eliminates most applicants, because companies rarely have the time or resources to teach such basics.
And he’s right — businesses shouldn’t be expected to. Basic digital literacy should be taught earlier and made accessible to everyone. It shouldn’t require college loans or draining savings. This is knowledge people should already have before walking into a job interview.
Take his Windows example. The process for changing a computer background hasn’t changed since the mid-1990s. The fact that many still can’t do it shows how long this gap has lingered. Technology has become more central to daily life with each passing decade, but the way we teach people to use it hasn’t kept pace.
Now, jobs once seen as the simplest way to support and build the economy are blocked by a knowledge gap that could have been fixed anytime in the last thirty years.
Yes, it’s been a few months since I’ve written here on In Focus. Fall is here, and I have some exciting columns planned as we head toward the winter months. If you’d like to get in touch—drop me a line at dursjosh@gmail.com.
