Latest news with #blueCollar
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
I lost my software engineer job in May and have taken up welding. I'm happy to leave the tech industry — AI has changed it.
Tabby Toney left her tech career for welding after being laid off in May. The tech industry's growing reliance on AI led to frustration and a desire for a career change. Toney finds welding creatively fulfilling and plans to pursue it professionally after training. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tabby Toney, a 37-year-old former software engineer based in Oklahoma, about leaving tech for a blue-collar career. It's been edited for length and clarity. My path into software engineering wasn't direct. I followed a friend into tech and started doing manual testing, knowing nothing; I was just doing user-experience work. I self-studied, paid for virtual classes, and bugged all of my software engineer friends until I could get a job as a software engineer. I loved tech because of the intellectual stimulation it provided. I enjoyed the creative problem-solving and critical thinking required to make things happen. That part has been taken away with the industry pushing AI. Last year, I started thinking about a transition out of tech. I was having recurring moments of frustration, and all my friends were having the same issues. I was laid off in May. At first, I thought I'd just take a month off because I was already so burned out. But I don't sit still very well, so I decided to take up welding. I had a feeling I was going to get laid off due to the industry's direction with AI, so I was hoarding all my extra money in preparation. I didn't want to start over again, but I also didn't want to be bored. I needed something to keep me engaged and feeling like I was contributing, but my tech job didn't do that anymore. Like me, I have friends who are completely leaving the tech industry right now. If tech isn't your whole life, it's OK if you want to move on. Now it's a little easier to make the jump. With how often the layoffs are, I feel less like I'm leaving something stable and steady. There's a lot of talk now, like, "Are you just mad because AI is taking your job?" That's not it. I haven't lost a job to AI. I think the problem is the industry's reliance on AI when it's not ready yet. Also, a lot of decisions are being made by non-tech people who don't fully understand how it affects the people who are writing the tech. I started feeling the shift affect me in October of last year, but I didn't want to leave the industry because tech has always excited me. I dreaded the coming interview process if I were to continue looking for software engineering roles. You have to drop everything for two months and study for these assessments, which are like studying for the ACT. I couldn't stand the thought of dropping everything and studying all over again for the interview, so I decided to take a month off, and I haven't looked back. How I picked up welding after getting laid off was pretty random. I took welding in high school, and I remember running around as a kid in my grandpa's garage, where he and my dad did it a bunch. I thought of it as something you do to repair things around your house or farm. But I borrowed some of my family's equipment and tried it again during my month break. I enjoy it because it's creative. However, metallurgy also involves knowing what to use and how to do it in certain situations, so there's still a thinking aspect to it. I also like working with my hands. I'm doing some side jobs for some friends right now, but I'm not at a level of welding yet that I would feel comfortable applying for a job in the field until I at least finish one class, which I start in August. Tech years are like dog years with how fast stuff changes and new inventions, but if we rely on AI to do so much, it almost feels like you're going backward in your skills, unless you're the person creating the AI. I've forgotten things that I previously knew how to do just because I hadn't done them in so long, and I've heard other people say the same thing. The market and the job industry didn't have to go this way because we could've used AI as a supplement. It's great as a helper. With how the industry is now, I'm pretty happy with my decision. I thought I would be a nervous wreck forever, but I was ready. I feel so relieved now that I have left tech and have a new plan. If you have a career change or layoff story that you would like to share, please email the reporter, Agnes Applegate, at aapplegate@ Read the original article on Business Insider
Harvard Business Review
01-07-2025
- Business
- Harvard Business Review
How Physical Operations Organizations Are Using AI to Protect Workers and Increase Efficiency
The world of physical operations forms the bedrock of our global economy, contributing to more than 40% of the world's gross domestic product (GDP). Manufacturing, construction, energy utilities, transportation, essential public services—these and other industries are the ones that build our cities, power our homes, and deliver the goods we rely on daily. I spend a lot of time with customers in these industries, and over the past few years, I've noticed a fundamental shift in how they operate. By and large, these blue-collar industries were late to adopt technological waves like smartphones, cloud computing, and big data. But they're on the forefront of adopting AI. Why? Why Physical Operations Is Embracing AI The foundation, both technological and demographic, of these industries' adoption of AI was laid over the past decade, and the impact is profound. Several critical factors are creating a fertile ground for this rapid AI adoption in physical operations. First, changing demographics are playing a key role. While workers still join operations industries because they don't want to work behind a desk, a new generation of frontline workers grew up with smartphones for their personal lives, and they expect their workplace technology to similarly make their jobs easier, safer, and more efficient. Second, operations digitized over the past decade. While operations lagged behind industries like finance, retail, and healthcare, it's now largely brought its data and processes into the cloud—just in time for AI. Third and most important, the physics of operations make the potential for impact truly massive. These remain the most dangerous jobs, and AI measurably saves lives (and insurance premiums). And operations are cost-intensive. Between capital expenses, fuel and energy costs, intensive labor demands, and fierce competition, margins are notoriously thin—and even a few percentage points of efficiency gains translates to a significant bottom-line impact. AI on the Frontlines The most compelling AI transformation I'm witnessing falls into two categories: enhancing worker safety and boosting operational efficiency. Safety On the safety front, AI is proving to be a powerful ally in protecting workers. While we marvel at the robotaxis now driving passengers in a handful of cities, similar technology powers AI dash cams in millions of commercial vehicles, acting as copilots to drivers and keeping them safe on the road—reducing accident rates by as much as 50% across tens of thousands of organizations. The City of New Orleans recently deployed AI dash cams in its ambulance fleet to support the thousands of EMTs, paramedics, and other drivers who respond to nearly 70,000 emergency calls annually. The results over 12 months were remarkable: a 37% reduction in speeding and a 46% decrease in mobile phone usage. The newest generation of AI tech can also recognize defensive driving maneuvers, and AI-captured footage can help exonerate drivers in disputed incidents. That tends to turn drivers into enthusiastic adopters of—and even ambassadors for—the technology. Building on the success of driver safety, organizations are beginning to deploy AI to keep workers safe across more and more diverse environments. AI can now detect hazards from a smartphone photo and provide proactive training or tailored safety checklists. And a new generation of wearable technology, enabled by the network of millions of internet-connected operations assets, creates new lifelines for lone workers. Efficiency Safety remains the top priority in operations, and efficiency follows closely behind. AI in the form of applications like predictive maintenance, route optimization, and specialized chatbots for back-office teams is enabling efficient use of labor, fuel and energy savings, and higher utilization of capital assets. By implementing AI-powered route optimization, Mohawk Industries, the largest flooring manufacturer in the world, achieved state-of-the-art efficiency in shuttling raw materials between sites and delivering products to retail partners. Across its three North American fleets, Mohawk's AI-driven efficiency translated into more than $7 million in savings from route optimizations and an improved experience for drivers, who no longer face long waits for dispatch assignments and are paid promptly upon shift completion. Similarly, Sterling Crane, one of Canada's largest mobile crane rental companies, used AI for preventive maintenance, saving over $3 million. For Sterling, an in-shop repair is vastly more cost-effective than dealing with a crane breakdown in a remote location where temperatures can plummet to -81°F. The Start of the AI Era A key observation here: In none of these examples does AI substitute for human labor. Instead, it is acting as a partner on safety and efficiency, and it even helps with team engagement and retention. In a climate where the competition for skilled workers remains intense, forward-thinking organizations are now putting AI to work to attract and retain talent through programs like driver recognition and digital reward systems. Increasingly, the gap between technological leaders and those lagging behind is growing in this era of swift AI advancements. For those organizations that haven't fully embraced AI, the good news is: it's still early days. Operations leaders everywhere still have time to jump aboard this rocket ship. I can't wait to see all the amazing new worlds we're just beginning to explore.
Bloomberg
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Will Republican Gains Among Hispanic Voters Last?
Barrels of ink were spilled for interviews with White working-class voters after President Donald Trump first captured the White House in 2016 as the press rushed to report why this coveted constituency had embraced the Republican Party. But the shift among working-class Hispanics has been even more dramatic — and has received only a fraction of the attention. In 2024, Trump won 55% of Hispanic voters earning $50,000 annually or less, an income cohort commonly defined as working class, defeating then-Vice President Kamala Harris by 11 percentage points , according to CNN exit polling. For the president, that's 22 points better than the 33% he received from blue-collar Hispanics in 2020, while topping the 50% he garnered from working class voters across all demographics last November.
