Episode 278: Hello, Goodbye

On this week’s episode of Grease the Wheels, we get into the transient nature of the automotive industry, just how bad the technician shortage has gotten, and the insane attrition rate of your new guys. In 2020 the reported technician shortage was around 178,000, now extrapolated out to 2025, which is right around the corner, they are projecting almost 800,000 want ads going unfilled in shops across the country. We get into why that is, but more importantly we get into some of the nitty gritty on what the articles aren’t talking about. Automotive journalists have routinely downplayed the money in their conversations about why so many jobs are going unfilled, and one that is completely ignored is the physical attrition rate of technicians. How many technicians physically can’t do the job anymore because of injuries sustained while working on cars? We have no idea, they don’t really want to ask that question. Finally, we do a detailed analysis of the guys in your shop, where they are going, and what is most likely to happen over a 5 year time frame. 

Also Uncle Jimmy quotes numbers from the government that are actually pretty believable!