Dive brief: Workwear brand Carhartt has teamed up with All In My Hands, a non-profit organization founded by members and management of heavy rock band Metallica, in an effort to recruit a new generation of workers into the professions. Carhart announced that it will donate all online sales on Labor Day to AWMH’s Metallica Scholars, an initiative to help students learn skills and services as they enter schools and trade programs. The holiday campaign reproduced the 1981 ad “Musicians Wanted,” published in the Los Angeles newspaper by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, which eventually led to the formation of the band. Dive Insight: The two-and-a-half-minute video shows the band members, somewhat reminiscent of WWII-era recruitment efforts, and they talk about the importance of skilled trades. During the announcement, students and job seekers are directed to visit the Carhartt website to learn more about how to get involved with Metallica Scholars. Metallica founded AWMH to help encourage people to find jobs in skilled trades, knowing that the music touring industry is closely linked to the craft. Metallica has been on the tour for decades, and had to delay its debut when the pandemic first started. “The music industry, and country in general, don’t function without skilled crafts,” Metallica player and guitarist James Hetfield said in the video. “Behind every concert we play and sing, there is a symphony of carpenters, electricians, laborers, welders, truck drivers, mechanics, painters, and others who make it all happen. But we need more of you.” Like the title of the band’s 1993 hit single, “Sad But True,” the number of workers in skilled trades is dwindling, and the epidemic worsens. In addition, millions of people working in the live events industry were fired when they closed, and the industry has yet to fully recover. To keep pace, the construction industry will need to hire at least 430,000 more workers in 2021 than it did in 2020, according to an analysis by Associated Builders and Contractors in March. This number could swell to a million in the coming years. The industry has turned to music for employment before. In January 2020, UP Subcontractors in St. Louis teamed up with Howard “Chingy” Bailey Jr. to write and produce a song and video called “Old Construction Road,” parodying the hit song “Old Town Road” by rapper Lil Nas X. When UPCO’s then-president Michael B. Kennedy Jr. said speakers and job fairs didn’t get the job done, UPCO was hoping In reaching young members of the workforce more creatively. As of the beginning of September, the video has garnered over 23,000 views on YouTube.
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