Microsoft President Calls For a National Talent Strategy For Electricians
- Reference: 0176847935
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/03/28/1447203/microsoft-president-calls-for-a-national-talent-strategy-for-electricians
- Source link:
> "As I prepared for a White House meeting last fall on the nation's electricity needs," begins Microsoft President Brad Smith in [2]The Country Needs More Electricity --And More Electricians , a Fox Business op-ed. "I met with the leaders at Microsoft who are [3]building our AI infrastructure across the country. During our discussion, I asked them to identify the single biggest challenge for data center expansion in the U.S. I expected they would mention slow permitting, delays in bringing more power online or supply chain constraints -- all significant challenges. But instead, they highlighted a national shortage of people. Electricians, to be precise."
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> Much as Smith has done in the past as he declared crisis-level shortages of [4]Computer Science , [5]cybersecurity , and [6]AI talent, he's calling for the nation's politicians and educators to step up to the plate and deliver students trained to address the data center expansion plans of Microsoft and Big Tech.
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> "How many new electricians must the U.S. recruit and train over the next decade?" Smith asks. "Probably half a million. [...] The good news is that these are good jobs. The bad news is that we don't have a national strategy to recruit and train the people to fill these jobs. Given the Trump administration's commitment to supporting American workers, American jobs and American innovation, we believe that recruiting and training more electricians should rise to its list of priorities. There are several ways to address this issue, and they deserve consideration. For example, we need to do more as a nation to revitalize the industrial arts and shop classes in American high schools. [...] This should be a priority for local school boards, state governors and appropriate federal support. [..] We must also adopt a broad perspective on where new technology is taking us. The tech sector is most often focused on computer and data science -- people who code. But the future will also be built in critical ways by a new generation of engineers, electricians, plumbers, pipefitters, iron workers, carpenters and other skilled trades.
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> So, is 'Learn to Wire' the new [7]'Learn to Code' ?
[1] https://slashdot.org/~theodp
[2] https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/country-needs-more-electricity-more-electricians
[3] https://www.geekwire.com/2024/microsoft-to-invest-3-3b-in-wisconsin-ai-data-center-as-biden-hits-at-trump-over-jobs-creation/
[4] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/04/25/2219209/think-tanks-how-a-bill-gates-agenda-becomes-a-law
[5] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2021/10/28/america-faces-a-cybersecurity-skills-crisis-microsoft-launches-national-campaign-to-help-community-colleges-expand-the-cybersecurity-workforce/
[6] https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2025/01/03/the-golden-opportunity-for-american-ai/
[7] https://developers.slashdot.org/story/23/04/23/177210/is-it-time-to-stop-saying-learn-to-code
Type (Score:2)
Presumably these are construction electricians that they need, not the type that come round in their van and replace the light fixture in your apartment ceiling.
Re: (Score:3)
They are one and the same, many times. I've had to deal with many industrial electricians and the good ones are worth what they charge. And most of them do side gigs, or the company they work with are both industrial and residential.
What you don't want is "the guy that can do it cheaper." Seen a couple of those, always called in by a skinflint store owner trying to save a buck. Yes, he did go out of business because of how he did everything.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not so sure about that 2nd comment. Me and many of my friends are the facilities maintenance and DIY oriented guys who can do it cheaper and correctly (as are many people on ./). Part of the reason there are less electricians is the amount of gatekeeping which goes on in the industry. Years of apprenticeship, hostile local electrical supply shops, old boys club, and municipal codes which sometimes prevent doing basic things like adding a receptacle on the other side of a wall without permits. Sure you w
Supporting, or talking about supporting. . . (Score:2)
"Given the Trump administration's commitment to supporting American workers"
Supporting, or talking about supporting?
There is a difference.
Re: (Score:3)
More like talking about commitment...
Re: (Score:1)
> "Given the Trump administration's commitment to supporting American workers"
> Supporting, or talking about supporting?
> There is a difference.
Have you read the "Green New Deal" from a few years ago? As I recall the "deal" included a lot about improving food production, creating manufacturing jobs, producing more energy, building infrastructure, and more that we'd recognize from the original "New Deal". What made it "green" where generic standards for lowering CO2 emissions, keeping air and water clean, along with a few specifics like zero-emission vehicles and public transit. Then, because Democrats wrote it, there was a bunch of bullshit abou
I took some vocational training in electrical (Score:2)
It was like an introductory series at a vocational school. One of the difference between electronics and electrical was the safety course. Reading old articles on how a guy got his arm burned off by brushing up to 480V in a cabinet is an example of the different level of risk between the professions. In electronics I have to just be careful not to inhale the wrong solvent, more people get hurt going to my work than at my work.
Re: (Score:2)
There is also the expectation that you will know, and apply, the Uniform Building Electrical Code. I remember taking that course as an introduction to electrical work.
Re: (Score:2)
> I have to just be careful not to inhale the wrong solvent,
But that's why some people went into that trade.
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I used to do wiring for industrial remediation equipment. Hydrocarbon incinerators and stuff... I got to work on a 480v design once, but it was slated for a union construction site, so we had to pull in master electricians & plumbers. I was used to 5hp motors needing #6 or #8 wire on longer runs. 480v three phase it was wired up with #14, it drew all of 8 amps...
I got to sit with the electricians and supervise them hooking it all up. They of course called me "college boy", etc... They found out how
In the near future they'll be replaced by AI. (Score:2)
In the near future they'll be replaced by AI.
Until then they’ll be working remotely.
At least that's what companies like Microsoft have been telling us :)
Re: (Score:2)
That future seems ... unreal?
More power ... more electricians (Score:2)
That depends on the power source. Half a million electricians will be needed to hook up solar panels 500 Watts at a time. Not so many to wire up a 1 GW nuclear plant.
To expand the grid (for distributed solar), you will need linemen. The kind of electricians who climb poles and string wire in nasty weather.
Bogus article (Score:3)
"The median electrician salary for a senior electrician in the United States is $35.58 per hour, or $74,000 per year."
So it is a job that will get you by, but nothing great. The working conditions may suck, and I know some truck drivers that get paid that much.
Yes when they suddenly want to build a data center somewhere there might not be enough idle electricians in the near vicinity to recruit for that one isolated construction project, after which the jobs would evaporate. Does this mean we should "revitalize the industrial arts and shop classes in American high schools", especially seeing as how the Department of Education has now been nuked? I'm not so sure.
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DoEd doesn't write curricula, they're just a middleman for recycled tax dollars.
Re: (Score:2)
Plus one on that comment.
Salary/wages (incl benefits) is the motivating factor. Want more, better, electricians, pay more. But whether its the trades, programmers, laborers, 'whatevers', the manager-types are loathe to pay market rate b/c the implied results are that means less income for the manager types. So they will go through all sorts of hoops like overseas outsourcing, trying to get the govt to pay directly/indirectly, H1B, and now of course AI
Re: (Score:2)
This! If a SENIOR electrician makes that, well fuck. I put yogurt on the shelf for a living (I run a dairy department in a grocery store) and I practically make that, but without the risk of life that comes with working with electricity. I also have a pension, 401k and good medical/dental/vision.
Senior electrician better be making 6 figures if I can do a high school drop out job that pays 70k....I also only work 40 hours a week.
Sure, I'm working on transitioning out, but it sure as hell isn't to be an elect
Take the stigma off trade work. (Score:2)
Sit in any school and hear how teachers and kids talk about people based on their job / career. Listen to the change in voice when someone mentions “doctor” or “nurse”, compared to “janitor”, or “electrician”. We might tell kids there is nothing wrong with a good trade job, I've heard that my entire life, but just because you say it, doesn't mean you believe it. Why does your voice (generally), show respect to the doctor, but not the plumber, electrician,
Pay me (Score:1)
I retired early because the industry want to pay me the same as 10 years ago while they earn billions in profit. Screw them.
Translation (Score:4, Insightful)
"Electricians are more expensive than programmers and developers now, we're paying too much for contractors."
Re: (Score:2)
This just in: H-1B visa program expansion in talks.
Re:Translation (Score:4, Insightful)
No, he's right. My former career was in defense manufacturing; we had an enormous workforce doing very standard traditional trades work. You can't find good trades people now. All this push for kids to go to college was at the expense of traditional trades work, and I remember we couldn't find enough good tradesmen and had tapped out every staffing service not just in our state but in every state surrounding us.
And the issue now is AI. AI is enormously power hungry. Many of the predictions about AI are flat wrong, not because you can't do it, but the pace of growth is unsustainable. The power demands add tremendous strain to the grids because they weren't designed for that constant high demand, they're designed for older demand needs. Also most server farms need backup power, some sort of diesel genset. The lead time on these things? 90 months. Seven and a half YEARS.
So not only are we low on tradespeople of all types for the power grid which uses several common trades and a few very specialized trades, we are woefully unprepared to build the infrastructure for AI to move at the pace that the AI companies want to; the physical infrastructure simply cannot keep up. There's a reason why AI companies are talking about nuclear, but that's decades out too.
The AI companies are acutely aware of the problems they're facing, and the biggest issue is they are running straight at a brick wall that will dead-stop their pace of development; that brick wall is the power infrastructure to support the data centers and the fact that there just aren't enough people to build the infrastructure.
The good news is if you're entering the workforce now, don't go to college. Go to a trade school. Chart a path to become a journeyman lineman or electrician, not the kind of electrician that wires your house but one that does major power infrastructure. Trade school is far cheaper and you'll be in huge demand and be able to write your own ticket.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not just electricians, it's linemen (sorry, there's no real gender neutral term for them).
Electricity goes from the power station to the transmission towers to distribution grids to your property, and the job is completely different. You have linemen who do transmission work - who take care of the wires from the power plant to the substation in your area, where the distribution linemen take over and bring it to your property. Once on your property, the electricians take over.
Each has skills that make s
Re: (Score:2)
Well, if they crapify the work of electricians as much as they have done the work of programmers, that would be easy to solve. Of course, things would also literally burn down more often, instead of the figurative version with software.
But I am sure, Trump and Elonia would be all for it ...