Elon Musk, already the world’s richest man, scored another huge windfall Friday when the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a decision that deprived him of a $55 billion pay package that Tesla doled out in 2018 as an incentive for its CEO to steer the automaker to new heights.

The nation’s largest retailer and private employer revamped its training program last year to increase the pipeline of maintenance technicians who do everything from repair equipment to electrical work at Walmart’s distribution centers and stores — jobs that have become increasingly difficult to fill because of a shrinking labor pool.

The shortage has opened opportunities for people like Liz Cardenas, 24, who started at Walmart in May 2023 as an automation equipment operator at a distribution center in Lancaster, Texas, making sure boxes were securely taped and went through a conveyer belt upright. Today, she is responsible for fixing conveyor belts and other equipment when they break at distribution centers.

Cardenas, who nearly doubled her hourly pay to $43.50 per hour, said she plans to pursue more training, which will mean an even higher salary and more responsibility. It also means financial freedom.

“I was able to move out of my parents’ house,” she said. “I have my own apartment. I was able to get a car, and and I’m able to give more to my 401(k).”

A surge of retirements, along with a slowdown in immigration that began during the pandemic but now is accelerating with President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportations, are among the main factors behind labor shortages that bedevil some employers, analysts say.

But in skilled trades, the problem is even more acute. Consulting firm McKinsey analyzed 12 types of trade job categories, including maintenance technicians, welders, and carpenters, and predicted an estimated imbalance of 20 job openings for every one net new employee from 2022 to 2032.

McKinsey noted “the extraordinary rate of churn” could cost companies more than $5.3 billion every year in talent acquisition and training costs alone.

The shortages are happening as some companies are also laying off workers amid rising operational costs from new tariffs, shifting consumer spending and increased spending on artificial intelligence.

Business Roundtable, a lobbying group of CEOs from roughly 150 companies representing millions of employees nationwide, launched in June a new initiative to address worker shortages in skilled trades, including maintenance technicians. The initiative, co-championed by home improvement retailer Lowe’s, entails working with elementary, middle and high schools to raise awareness.

“While technology continues to evolve, it cannot replace plumbers, electricians, construction workers, maintenance and repair pros, or other tradespeople,” said Marvin Ellison, chairman and CEO of Lowe’s.

For its part, Lowe’s in 2022 started a 90-day online training program for employees who want to pursue jobs like carpentry and utility maintenance. Separately, its charitable arm has invested $43 million since 2023 to 60 organizations including technical colleges and non-profit groups to help recruit and train skilled tradespeople like maintenance technicians and plumbers.

Mervin Jebaraj of the University of Arkansas’s Walton College of Business in Fayetteville, Arkansas, noted these programs will help ease the shortages, but they won’t eliminate the gap, particularly given Trump’s clampdown on immigration.

“For as long as somebody physically needs to fix this, the shortage will persist, even though on the margins it’ll mitigate some of the shortage,” he said. “We don’t have enough people.”

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon recently told The Associated Press he believes part of the reason for the shortages is “lack of awareness.”

“I think most Americans probably don’t know what a tech makes that helps take care of our stores and clubs and that we can help them learn how to be a tech,” he said. “So we have a need to get the word out so that people know there are some great jobs.”

Walmart revamped its training program in the spring of 2024, focusing on its own workers with a tuition-free training initiative in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This year, it added new training sites in Vincennes, Indiana, and Jacksonville, Florida. The initiative combines hands-on instruction and classroom learning in fields like heating, ventilation, air conditioning, electrical work, and general maintenance.

As of mid-November, almost 400 employees had graduated from the program, Walmart said. With its first class of 108 associates who completed the Dallas/Fort Worth pilot program, every graduate secured a technician role, putting them on a path to earn an average of $32 per hour. Walmart said its goal is to put 4,000 workers through the training program by 2030.

R.J. Zanes, vice president of facility services for the U.S. divisions of Walmart and Sam’s Club, said Walmart was able to attract workers from all over the country with different backgrounds, including employees running cash registers.

Maintenance technician roles are crucial to keeping Walmart’s operations running smoothly, but especially so during the holiday season. For example, if a refrigeration system goes down within a Walmart store, it could cost up to $300,000 to $400,000 worth of lost product, according to Zanes.

“We’ve got to stay out in front of that,” he said. “We have to ensure that we’ve got the right skills there to do preventative maintenance, and when we do have a breakdown, to make sure that we get it back up as fast as possible to minimize that cost of downtime.”

In a note on Thursday, economists said the recent investment surge led by artificial intelligence is just the start of a multiyear boom in capital spending.

As a result, GDP with grow at a robust rate of 2.5% in both 2026 and 2027, even after accounting for a weaker job market that will slow consumption.

“With core inflation remaining above the 2% target for some considerable time, we think the Fed will cut its policy rate by only 25bp in 2026, putting the new Fed Chair and President Trump at loggerheads almost immediately,” Capital Economics predicted.

The president is considering National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Fed governor Christopher Waller, and former Fed governor Kevin Warsh. The prediction market Kalshi has Hassett as the favorite with 54% odds to be picked, followed by Warsh (24%) and Waller (14%).

On Wednesday, Trump said he will name someone “who believes in lower interest rates by a lot.” A week before that, after the Fed cut rates by a quarter point to 3.5%-3.75%, he complained that it could have been “at least doubled.”

And earlier this year, Trump suggested the rate should go all the way down to just 1%, a level that’s typically consist with a recession, not an economy expanding at a healthy clip.

To be sure, the job market is showing signs of stagnation, but the AI boom will keep the economy buoyant, with incomes holding up too, Capital Economics said.

That’s as business investment should grow by 6.5% in 2026 and accelerate to a 7.4% pace in 2027, as AI adoption spreads to more sectors outside tech, like finance, real estate and healthcare.

AI-fueled productivity gains should also help offset tightness in the labor market due to Trump immigration crackdown, but his tariffs will keep inflation sticky, economists said.

Of course, Trump’s Fed pick could do his bidding and push for more rate cuts, but that will require other policymakers to go along. And even if they do, the aggressive easing will eventually backfire.

“Admittedly, the appointment of a new Fed Chair could trigger a bigger wave of policy loosening, but only if the Trump administration is willing to destroy the FOMC’s independence and inflation-fighting credibility, which may result in higher long-term interest rates,” Capital Economics warned.

For his part, Hassett seemed to display a rare hint of independence from Trump last week, saying the president’s opinion would have “no weight” on the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.

Not everyone is so bullish on the economy. Analysts at Citi Research expect GDP growth of around 2% next year with inflation heading toward the Fed’s 2% target and the labor market continuing to soften.

That will clear the war for the Fed to cut rates by a total of 75 basis points—triple what Capital Economics sees—to 2.75%-3.0%.

“Risks are balanced toward a more rapid rise in the unemployment rate that could lead the Fed to cut rates more rapidly and deeply,” Citi said in a note Thursday. “We do not expect a rebound in growth or labor demand in 2026. Instead, our base case is for hiring to remain subdued leading to slower income growth and a sustained slowdown in consumer spending.”