. >> reporter: michael oates, a lifelong welder, is recovering from a 10-year opioid addiction which began when he took vicodin for pain while working at a steel mill. did you lose the job? >> actually, my job went to china. that was my excuse to do even more pills. >> reporter: have you worked since? >> i've had four or five different jobs since then. >> reporter: what happened to those jobs? >> i lost them all due to being addicted to opiates. they would random drug test me, and i'd be like, "well, see you later." i'd walk out. i even got caught one time with synthetic urine in my underwear, because i got pretty slick at using that. >> reporter: you'd stash it in your underpants? >> i would stash it in my underwear, and i'd go in and it's synthetic urine. it's got everything in it that you need to make them think it's your urine. >> reporter: out of work for three years now, oates is just one example of how the opioid crisis has decimated the american workforce. business owner clyde mcclellan has seen plenty of others. >> we have people that come in on a regular basis looking for e