‘Hallelujah’: Jubilant Mike Rowe Wakes Up To See The Economy Turn Back To Dirty Jobs

Longtime blue-collar job proponent Mike Rowe had heaps of praise for an acknowledgement made by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about the future.

“What we need more than anything right now is we need to celebrate skilled craft workers,” Huang said during an appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “We’ve moved away from industrialization and manufacturing for so long that there’s a void for the ability to manufacture things,” he continued, saying he loves that the United States is building AI factories, which will “need skilled craft.”

“We need to go back and make sure that the trade schools are really well invested in,” Huang added.

My first two words on this particular Sunday morning were "Hallelujah!” followed by, “Amen!”

I was not in church when I uttered them. I was at my kitchen table, watching the CEO of the most valuable company in the world say precisely what mikeroweWORKS has been espousing for the… pic.twitter.com/oxNZZfzqTv

— The Real Mike Rowe (@mikeroweworks) July 13, 2025

Rowe responded with praise for what the tech industry exec was saying.

“My first two words on this particular Sunday morning were ‘Hallelujah!’ followed by ‘Amen!’” the “Dirty Jobs” host wrote as part of his lengthy response.

“If you haven’t already heard, a massive challenge is upon us. With regard to artificial intelligence and the energy we need to feed it, America will either change its current direction, or get left far, far behind. I know this because I run a modest foundation that has been arguing for decades that the portion of our workforce most often described as ‘the skilled trades’ will become the most essential component of our economy, our independence, and our collective future,” he went on. 

“Well, the future is here. Obviously, I didn’t know that the race to dominate artificial intelligence would be the thing that finally galvanized the folks at the grown-up table. When I founded mikeroweWORKS in 2008, I figured it would be a new commitment to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure that would necessitate a collective push to reinvigorate the trades.”

Rowe said, “That need is still pressing, but I never imagined the most urgent cry for more welders and electricians would be ushered in by the need for more data centers. Back then, I didn’t even know what a data center was. But today, here we are. Data centers are headline news, because they are – as Jensen Huang says – AI factories. And if we want to remain competitive with China, we need to build thousands of them. Now. And presently, we simply don’t have the workforce to do it.”

He went on to explain that skilled trades need “better PR” at a national level and that people need to realize that these skills are “in demand.” 

Rowe went into detail about attempting to help then-President Barack Obama push “shovel-ready jobs,” but not having much success. Now he’s turning his attention to assisting Trump.

“Just as I was rooting for President Obama in 2009, I’m rooting for President Trump today. I hope he succeeds in reinvigorating our industrial base and reshoring our manufacturing capabilities, and I want to offer my support. But if he does succeed, we’re talking about millions new jobs in manufacturing alone,” Rowe added.