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The rise of AI has instilled fear in many Americans.
A recent Reuters poll found that 53% of Americans are afraid the rise of AI could put them or someone in their household out of work — this fear spanned respondents of a variety of ages, genders and education levels. On the other hand, 75% of respondents to a study by The Harris Poll in February believe jobs that rely on hands-on experience are less likely to be overtaken by AI.
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This is where the blue-collar influencer comes in.
These are a subset of social media personalities promoting their blue-collar lifestyle and work online and showing just how cool it can be.
One example is Lindsey Hover, a welder/fabricator who goes by @thebluecollarbarbie on social media. In one of her videos, clad in a bright pink helmet and gloves, she works on a welding project while the caption “I actually do think this is easier than sending an email” floats above her.
Hover has 160,000 followers on Instagram, and lots of positive comments under her posts. While she certainly is making welding look cool, could the influence of social media really be enough to get more people into the trades and away from jobs more likely lost due to AI?
Selling the blue-collar lifestyle amid a labor shortage
Blue-collar influencers are giving blue-collar work a rebrand by showing how lucrative it can be, while also emphasizing the freedom of a lifestyle unburdened by corporate fatigue.
Trucker Clarissa Rankin documents her work life on TikTok. Her videos range from days-in-the-life on the job to informative tips for aspiring truckers. In 2023, she excitedly shared that she finally paid off her $148,000 truck — lovingly named Sparkle — and now owns it outright. “Sparkle has made me coin,” she says in the video.
As baby boomers retire and smaller cohorts of young people enter the workforce, the U.S. is facing labor shortages, and promoting blue-collar work could encourage younger generations to get into the labor market.
According to Trading Economics, the labor force participation rate in the United States decreased by 0.3 percentage points to 61.5% in June 2026. This is the lowest rate seen since March 2021.
Steven Ruggles, a professor of history and population studies at the University of Minnesota, told CBS News that the U.S. could be on its way to an “unprecedented situation” as more workers leave the workforce than enter it.
Amid this shortage, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicts that plumbers, electricians and builders will see big salary jumps as trade craft becomes even more necessary for building “chip factories, computer factories and AI factories.”
But it’s unclear if this shift will be as simple as Huang predicts.
Read More: 7 top habits of 'quietly wealthy' Americans. How many do you follow?
Can the blue-collar digital boom close the gap?
While blue-collar influencers may be able to inspire some people to go into the trades, it’s difficult to say if it is enough to get a significant number of workers involved in this work.
According to Associated Builders and Contractors, the U.S. construction industry will need to attract an estimated 349,000 new workers to keep up with demand. And as blue-collar work becomes more specialized as technology advances, the barrier to entry into certain fields can become higher.
Caroline Pfeiffer Marinho, senior vice president at Right Management, told Bloomberg that it can take years before a person is qualified for a paid position as technology advances. For example, she pointed to how electricians have had to adapt from working with lightbulbs to LEDs to motion sensors over the years. In short, it could take many years for blue-collar workers to be qualified for higher-salaried positions as they train to work with newer technologies.
While blue-collar jobs may be less susceptible to AI intervention, they aren’t totally immune either, as advancements in AI and robotics are already being tested on factory floors.
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