The 90th percentile of factory workers makes $45,000. The 90th percentile of software engineers makes $230,000. Hiring in tech is insanely expensive; I'm not familiar with hiring in factories, but it can't possibly have the supply problems that tech workers have. I do on average 115 interviews for every person I hire in tech.

That $45,000 factory worker is often operating a $1.5 million piece of equipment with $10-50,000/hr of materials going through it.

It's an entirely different cost structure.