Move to Detroit if you want a job.

[Whitehouse]

Via Jalopnik.

Auto makers both domestic and foreign are hiring in the U.S. as they expand production of small, high-mileage cars.

The Labor Department says the economy barely added any jobs last month, and the unemployment rate edged up a notch to 9.2 percent. But check what's going on in the auto manufacturing: another 900 jobs in June, meaning 72,000 more workers are building cars in the U.S. than two years ago.
Americans are buying more cars, and carmakers are putting more people back on the assembly line, as Marketplace's Jeff Horwich reports.

[Hypestyles]

i check on the gm, ford, chrysler websites.. either they are sporadically updated with respect to new job openings, or they all nearly-exclusively count on the referral system where you already have to know somebody working there to get an hourly job..

[DetroitPlanner]

I would not get so excited about this. The new auto jobs pay about half what the old ones did with worse benefits. In ND, an enry level McDonald's worker makes $15 an hour with better bennies and a maid makes $1,000 a week!

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/danie...122815061.html

At these wages the auto worker will not be able to afford good housing or much discretionary income, two things that allowed Michigan to have a robust economy fueled by the well paid autoworker.

[coracle]

Whether the new jobs are given out on the referral system or by open application really doesn't detract from the fact that some guys currently out of work in Michigan will get back on the payroll soon. Great news for the Detroit area. The bad news is the overall country picture where only 18,000 jobs have been produced in June [[to be reduced when nobody's watching) and the job figures for April and May have been reduced by 44,000. The overall recovery is pathetic and one can't help but believe it's worse than is being reported; and we're being lied to for political expediency.

[corktownyuppie]

The overall recovery is pathetic and one can't help but believe it's worse than is being reported; and we're being lied to for political expediency.

You may disagree with the methodology used to report on economic figures, but it should be noted that the same methods for calculating this data remain unchanged whether we are in boom times, bust times, republican administration, or democrat administration.

My experience from speaking with other people in my field around the country is that the figures are accurate for the most part, but people in certain geographical areas are feeling more of the brunt than others. We are in that group, of course.

Moreover, someone who was accustomed to making $40 an hour is now making $18 an hour...he/she still shows up as "employed" despite the fact that his/her economic situation is far far worse than it was.

The reality in Michigan is that it won't ever go back to the way it used to be. In the long run, the problem isn't the Mexicans, Chinese, or the bankers. It's technology, automation, and efficiency. Just-in-time inventory management, combined with six sigma process engineering, combined with robotics means that even when the auto industry rebounds, it will do so with far fewer autoworkers.

This is bad for us, but good for the big picture in the long run. Computers were great for all of us, but the typewriter business died in the process. It'll be the same going forward. Autos will still be relevant, but let's not delude ourselves into thinking it will provide a nice middle-class living to millions of autoworkers.

[lilpup]

I'm sure most are being filled by callbacks. That 72,000 is still less than were laid off and it includes ALL makers, not just UAW/Big 3, so not all are in Michigan.

[downtown_racine]

When I was a wee yout all I wanted to do was grow up so I could work at Ford's, never panned out.

[Bigb23]

I hate to say, it was easier to get into the social security system than going back to work.
And I blame Wall Street, and the few people that reaped hundreds of millions of dollars.
There were a hundred Bernie Maddoff's that got away scott free.

[coracle]

It's easier to get into the SS system than get a job because the givers are paid with other people's tax payments to give away other people's tax payments, and the politicians want their votes. It's "monopoly" money. If they had to earn it themselves we'd never get in. As for Maddoff; his illegal ponzi scheme is merely a microcosm of the SS scheme administered legally by the government.

[midwesthostage]

I would not get so excited about this. The new auto jobs pay about half what the old ones did with worse benefits. In ND, an enry level McDonald's worker makes $15 an hour with better bennies and a maid makes $1,000 a week!

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/danie...122815061.html

At these wages the auto worker will not be able to afford good housing or much discretionary income, two things that allowed Michigan to have a robust economy fueled by the well paid autoworker.

That may be true but part of the problems was that auto workers were so OVERPAID that they crippled the auto industry; with people living longer, those companies were on their way to paying way more to their retirees than their current workforce, if they weren't there already. Manufacturing, important as it is, is never going to be the economic powerhouse it once was. Tech and service are where the jobs are shifting to. Anyway, I really don't want to see Michigan so dependent on one industry again. Too risky.

[313WX]

Aren't the call backs being brought back under the old UAW contract? In other words, wouldn't they still receive the old wage/benefits package?

[Bigb23]

What you forgot was the wall street hudreds of miilions of dollars of profit.

[313WX]

To DetroitPlanner's point, it should be noted too, North Dakota is the only state in the country with its own central bank. It was created in 1919 to guarantee loans to its students, loans to the agriculture industry and issue municipal bonds. Basically they've created their own credit line to insulate themselves from the impact of a national credit freeze. They make their money by having state agencies deposit there. The biggest difference between them and the FED is they don't engage in risky securities like the FED did with the mortgage industry.

Of course, this is all besides the fact that North Dakota is a fiscally conservative state.

Maybe Michigan could look into something like this. Surely that would have helped to shave off SOME of the impact from the Big 3's failure, because part of the problem for them was the lack of credit flowing into the economy. That may have also prevented downtown's gentrification from slowing down as much as it has.

[Roq]

I would not get so excited about this. The new auto jobs pay about half what the old ones did with worse benefits. In ND, an enry level McDonald's worker makes $15 an hour with better bennies and a maid makes $1,000 a week!

Yeah I read that article too and all I could think was "Yeah, the money is great and all but I would have to live in North fucking Dakota...no thank you!"

[Bigb23]

What was lost on this thread, that if you comprared 1916 money to today the 2009 money is about the same. Boy, 90 years, with no pay increase. High five Wall Street.

[Bigb23]

I'm sick and tired of the UAW debate. Get a new argument or stop.

[Jason]

Those factory jobs are good for those who can only work those jobs at this point in their lives. But I don't think anyone is going to move to Detroit to work the line. It would be like moving to another city to work at McDonalds or WalMart.

The engineering jobs that they added not too long ago is a different story. The other jobs are ones we'll happily accept but the higher quality jobs are the ones that we really want Detroit to gain.

[carmellieB]

For those wondering where to go to escape the fear of the downturn, consider North Dakota. CNN notes that while six-figure salaries are possible, the path to the cash isn't really for every person. The North Dakota oil boom, centered on the Bakken oil development, has kept the state's joblessness rate the lowest in the United States at 3.5 percent. Large oil signifies a large number of jobs - if candidates can hack grueling hours, lack of housing and harsh winter months. North Dakota oil boom brings jobs aplenty. But, before moving in, there are things to consider. While high-paying jobs are plentiful, housing is not. Reports of thousands of workers sleeping in cars and RVs are not uncommon, as the surge in demand has made even single-bedroom apartments rent for more than $1,500 per month, if they’re even available. Two- to three-bedroom rentals go for $3,000 or more.