Report: Detroit's big 3 about to start hiring

Here is some sunny news for these gray-vember days.

Link

CAR [Center for Automotive Research. ] reports that Ford, GM, Chrysler will add about 33,000 jobs in Michigan.

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DETROIT -
Detroit's Big Three automakers are about to embark on a hiring binge, according to a report from the Center for Automotive Research.

The center predicts that Ford, General Motors and Chrysler will add about 33,000 jobs in Michigan between now and 2015. Of those jobs, 12,000 will be salaried workers.

The center also said suppliers could hire as many as 150,000 new workers to meet demand.

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interesting.. I wonder would people have to go on the websites, or would they have to know someone already working there to apply..

Also, Snyder to unveil plan to better match jobs, skills

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LANSING -- Gov. Rick Snyder is to unveil a plan Thursday aimed at fixing a mismatch between the needs of Michigan's employers and the skills of its workers.

Despite double-digit unemployment, companies in Michigan have a hard time finding welders, software programmers and other workers with special skills, officials said Tuesday....

Snyder also is expected to call on residents to volunteer as mentors to help improve Michigan's work force....

Snyder is expected to talk about Shifting Code, a pilot project to train software programmers scheduled for launch in January in Detroit, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo, Cell said....

Projecting needs of the labor market is not an exact science. Colleges ramped up nursing programs in response to a severe need in Michigan, only to see the job market tighten.

"We were humming along until 2008," said Karen Tyler-Ruiz, director of the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund, a public-private partnership that emphasizes health care industry training. Once the economy tanked and older nurses looked at their depleted 401[[k) plans, they "just didn't retire" as expected, she said.

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This is quite interesting. I'm curious though if people are more flexible now than pre-2008. That demand can always go back down and we'd see a similar amount of layoffs somewhere towards the future. I would hope the same mistakes of the last decade don't happen again.

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Originally Posted by Lowell

Here is some sunny news for these gray-vember days.

Link

CAR [Center for Automotive Research. ] reports that Ford, GM, Chrysler will add about 33,000 jobs in Michigan.

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This article proves yet again the fallacy of supply-side economics.

Demand creates jobs, no other way around it.

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Originally Posted by 313WX

.......Demand creates jobs, no other way around it.

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Depends on who is making the "demand". Instead of getting all tingly about the rosy predictions coming from CAR, let's look at the present, shall we?

General Motors trumpeted that its sales in November 2011 were up 7% over the same period in 2010. Buried in that same press release was the fact that GM dealer inventories were up 16% compared to a year ago, totaling 623,666 vehicles [chart]. GM dealer inventories are now at an all-time high and evidence that General Motors is back to their pre-bankruptcy practice of "channel stuffing".

Who benefits from "channel stuffing"?

Certainly General Motors benefits, since they can claim vehicles as "sold" units as soon as the dealers take delivery, not the final customer. The US Government tracks manufacturing output statistics based on when General Motors sells its products, not the dealers. Boost manufacturing output and you boost the economic stats coming out of Washington DC, regardless of whether actual consumer demand is in synch.

Certainly the UAW benefits, since they get paid to make vehicles regardless of when those vehicles are sold and how much they are sold for.

However, this practice is not a benefit to GM dealers, who have to borrow the money to carry that inventory. 75% of GM dealers "floor plan" their inventory by borrowing from Ally Financial [[formerly GMAC), which thanks to TARP is majority-owned by the US Treasury Department [[with GM holding a minority stake). Together, GM and Ally still have about $42 billion worth of outstanding TARP loans that have yet to be repaid [Oct. 2011 SIGTARP Report to Congress].

With General Motors' stock price dropping below the $25 per share range, the US Treasury Dept. recently increased to $23.8 billion its anticipated loss on General Motors' TARP loans.

Gee, you don't think that the US Government might be the "demand" behind GM's post-bankruptcy "channel stuffing", do you?

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Gee, you don't think that the US Government might be the "demand" behind GM's post-bankruptcy "channel stuffing", do you?

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No, I don't think so. As you say:

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General Motors is back to their pre-bankruptcy practice of "channel stuffing"

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The automakers [[and other companies) have done this forever. When the inventory gets too high, they cut production and/or raise incentive. This week GM closed Lordstown for a week to get their inventory of Cruzes back to a better level. No reason to think it has anything to do with the government.

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Originally Posted by mwilbert

........The automakers [[and other companies) have done this forever. When the inventory gets too high, they cut production and/or raise incentive. This week GM closed Lordstown for a week to get their inventory of Cruzes back to a better level. No reason to think it has anything to do with the government.

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You obviously didn't look at the chart at the link I provided so here it is [[below). Note the overall upward trend since Nov. 2009, punctuated by the temporary downward inventory adjustments you describe.
Attachment 11369

While I'm at it, here is a related article I just found:

Manufacturing expanded last month at faster pace
The Associated Press December 1, 2011, 10:21AM ET
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
Washington

U.S. factories grew last month at the fastest pace since June, helped by a jump in new orders and production.
The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, said Thursday that its manufacturing index rose to 52.7 in November, up from 50.8 in October. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.......[read the entire article]

How is the chart relevant to the argument? It shows growing inventory, which I don't dispute. I simply agreed with you that GM [[and other manufacturers) regularly engaged in channel-stuffing before bankruptcy, so it is hard to attribute current channel-stuffing to government influence. And why are inventories growing as government ownership declines?

Of course, you are entitled to believe what you like, but I'd say the evidence is minimal.

MikeG how do you explain increased sales at all of the other auto companies? Is Chrysler a sham only until they start selling stock? What about Ford who never took TARP? Its not like I am seeing seas of unsold product sitting in parking lots like I used to.