Story first appeared in The Detroit News.
Gov. Rick Snyder sees a disconnect between what Michigan's employers need and what's available to them in the state's work force. And his plan to fix it drew positive early reviews after its unveiling Thursday.
To improve Michigan's work force development efforts, Snyder outlined a plan that includes everything from a new one-stop website for prospective employers and employees, to proposed changes for unemployment benefits, to calls for change on immigration caps and new goals for the state's welfare to work efforts.
Snyder said times have been tough in Michigan. He added that we have failed to think strategically about the relationship between economic development and talent. Job creators are finding it challenging to grow and develop without the right talent, and job seekers are struggling to connect with the right opportunities that leverage their skills.
He added that today, too few workers have the skills needed to meet the demands of employers in the new economy. Despite an unemployment rate of 10.6 percent, thousands of jobs remain unfilled in Michigan.
At the heart of Snyder's plan is the Internet site Pure Michigan Talent Connect, which he described as a "Web-based talent marketplace."
For those seeking work, it will provide information on education opportunities, areas of job growth and openings. For businesses searching for help, it will connect them with possible hires.
To further help businesses hold on to valued workers, Snyder will push for changes to the unemployment system. He proposed allowing work sharing, where companies can scale back worker hours and then the employees would get partial unemployment benefits.
This allows the employers to retain their talent and ensures that a business can begin growing again immediately once demand returns to normal levels.
It benefits employees because they retain employment and fringe benefits.
Lawmakers' OK needed
The change to unemployment would have to be approved by the state Legislature.
He also wants to eliminate caps on the immigrants with master's degrees or higher levels of education. It's a move that would require action in Congress and Snyder encouraged those in attendance Thursday to contact their elected officials on the subject.
Two state programs drew particular scrutiny from Snyder. Michigan's Jobs, Education and Training program is designed to help low-income families. Those receiving federal and state unemployment assistance will be encouraged to use work-participation programs.
In Michigan, Snyder said, the participation level is unacceptable.
He promoted a new effort between several state agencies to boost those levels above standards set by the federal government.
Lindsay Chalmers, vice president of Goodwill Industries, attended the governor's speech and agreed with much of what he heard concerning improvements to the two programs. Goodwill provides training and services aimed at putting people back into the workforce.
Michigan Works!, the state's doorway program to job training and employment opportunities, must be changed as well, Snyder said.
The program will shift to a "demand-driven strategy," and the program's executive director welcomed the challenge.
Snyder also focused on the role of the state's universities and community colleges in promoting a focus on computers, engineering and mathematics skills — areas that have seen a decline in student interest in recent decades.
But simply pushing colleges in that direction won't be enough, said an economics professor at Michigan State University.
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
09 December 2011
06 September 2011
WHIRLPOOL CORP. OUT OF A SLUMP
Story first appeared in Bloomberg.
Whirlpool Corp., the world’s largest appliance maker, said first-quarter profit increased 3 percent, helped by an energy tax credit.
Net income rose to $169 million, or $2.17 a share, from $164 million, or $2.13 a share, a year earlier, the maker of KitchenAid refrigerators and Maytag washing machines said today in a statement. Revenue gained 3 percent to $4.4 billion, surpassing the $4.29 billion predicted by analysts. Profit was $2.11 a share, excluding some items, topping the $1.16 median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Operating profit declined.
Sales at Whirlpool, based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, recovered last year after the company gained market share and benefited from U.S. tax credits for making energy-efficient appliances. Jeff Fettig, chairman and chief executive officer, is also expanding business in emerging markets such as Brazil, with about half of the company’s sales coming from North America last year.
Fettig said that their first-quarter results reflect their ongoing cost reduction efforts and continued innovation investments, which helped to mitigate significant material cost inflation.
Whirlpool reaffirmed its profit estimate of between $12 and $13 a share this year, helped by between $300 million and $350 million in energy tax credits. The company said in February that it expected to receive $300 million in energy tax credits this year. Fettig told analysts today that the higher number was based on better visibility after monitoring sales of qualifying models.
Whirlpool rose 79 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $88.65 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares are little changed this year.
Research and Development
Whirlpool plans to spend more than $600 million on research and development and will open a plant and distribution center in Tennessee and a new headquarters in Michigan with $1 billion in U.S. investment through 2014, Fettig said in a speech in Detroit last month.
Founded a century ago, Whirlpool bought smaller Maytag Corp. in 2006 for $2.6 billion to compete with appliance makers in Asia.
After closing nine factories in North America since the merger, the company still operates nine plants in the U.S., with about 17,500 workers, and says 82 percent of the units sold in the U.S. are domestically made. Whirlpool can claim the tax credit only for appliances produced in the U.S.
Globally, Whirlpool employs 71,000 people.
Sales at the appliance maker rose 7 percent to $18.4 billion last year after dropping during the housing slump of the previous two years. In the year-earlier quarter, the company attributed a rise in revenue to increased productivity.
Tax Rates
Whirlpool had negative effective income tax rates in 2010, 2009 and 2008. Last year, the company reported an income tax benefit of $64 million and an effective tax rate of negative 10.9 percent, according to company filings. The company expects a similar tax benefit in 2011, corporate controller Larry Venturelli told analysts today.
The company relies more heavily on the credit than do other appliance makers such as Electrolux AB and General Electric Co., said Laura Champine, an analyst at Cowen & Co. in New York.
Electrolux, based in Stockholm, is accruing the credits for future use against its U.S. tax liability, chief financial officer Jonas Samuelson told analysts.
Tax Benefits
He said they have the same opportunities for tax benefits that are quite similar to Whirlpool when it comes to energy tax credit, however, they can’t realize them to earnings to the same extent.
Congress created the appliance manufacturing tax credit in 2005. It was extended for a year in December in a broader tax law. The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that a one-year extension would cost the government $235 million in forgone revenue over the next decade. That’s higher than the $78 million estimate it issued last year, before officials realized how much of a benefit the credit provides to Whirlpool.
Whirlpool Corp., the world’s largest appliance maker, said first-quarter profit increased 3 percent, helped by an energy tax credit.
Net income rose to $169 million, or $2.17 a share, from $164 million, or $2.13 a share, a year earlier, the maker of KitchenAid refrigerators and Maytag washing machines said today in a statement. Revenue gained 3 percent to $4.4 billion, surpassing the $4.29 billion predicted by analysts. Profit was $2.11 a share, excluding some items, topping the $1.16 median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Operating profit declined.
Sales at Whirlpool, based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, recovered last year after the company gained market share and benefited from U.S. tax credits for making energy-efficient appliances. Jeff Fettig, chairman and chief executive officer, is also expanding business in emerging markets such as Brazil, with about half of the company’s sales coming from North America last year.
Fettig said that their first-quarter results reflect their ongoing cost reduction efforts and continued innovation investments, which helped to mitigate significant material cost inflation.
Whirlpool reaffirmed its profit estimate of between $12 and $13 a share this year, helped by between $300 million and $350 million in energy tax credits. The company said in February that it expected to receive $300 million in energy tax credits this year. Fettig told analysts today that the higher number was based on better visibility after monitoring sales of qualifying models.
Whirlpool rose 79 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $88.65 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares are little changed this year.
Research and Development
Whirlpool plans to spend more than $600 million on research and development and will open a plant and distribution center in Tennessee and a new headquarters in Michigan with $1 billion in U.S. investment through 2014, Fettig said in a speech in Detroit last month.
Founded a century ago, Whirlpool bought smaller Maytag Corp. in 2006 for $2.6 billion to compete with appliance makers in Asia.
After closing nine factories in North America since the merger, the company still operates nine plants in the U.S., with about 17,500 workers, and says 82 percent of the units sold in the U.S. are domestically made. Whirlpool can claim the tax credit only for appliances produced in the U.S.
Globally, Whirlpool employs 71,000 people.
Sales at the appliance maker rose 7 percent to $18.4 billion last year after dropping during the housing slump of the previous two years. In the year-earlier quarter, the company attributed a rise in revenue to increased productivity.
Tax Rates
Whirlpool had negative effective income tax rates in 2010, 2009 and 2008. Last year, the company reported an income tax benefit of $64 million and an effective tax rate of negative 10.9 percent, according to company filings. The company expects a similar tax benefit in 2011, corporate controller Larry Venturelli told analysts today.
The company relies more heavily on the credit than do other appliance makers such as Electrolux AB and General Electric Co., said Laura Champine, an analyst at Cowen & Co. in New York.
Electrolux, based in Stockholm, is accruing the credits for future use against its U.S. tax liability, chief financial officer Jonas Samuelson told analysts.
Tax Benefits
He said they have the same opportunities for tax benefits that are quite similar to Whirlpool when it comes to energy tax credit, however, they can’t realize them to earnings to the same extent.
Congress created the appliance manufacturing tax credit in 2005. It was extended for a year in December in a broader tax law. The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that a one-year extension would cost the government $235 million in forgone revenue over the next decade. That’s higher than the $78 million estimate it issued last year, before officials realized how much of a benefit the credit provides to Whirlpool.
30 August 2011
Texas Beats Out Michigan When It Comes To Jobs
Story first appeared in the Detroit Free Press
In the global contest for jobs and economic growth, Texas has spent the last decade eating Michigan's lunch.
But who deserves the blame -- or, if you're a Lone Star State partisan, the credit?
Is Jennifer Granholm, who served as Michigan governor from 2003-10, the person most responsible for this state's lost decade? Or does Texas' superior economic performance have more to do with the stewardship of Rick Perry, the Republican who succeeded George W. Bush as Texas' governor in 2000, remains in office and recently became the newest entrant in the crowded GOP presidential race?
One possible answer, as we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11, is that we ought to pay more attention to the pivotal role of Osama bin Laden -- a man whose contributions to both Texas' ascent and Michigan's decline arguably eclipsed that of either state's governor.
You probably thought you'd heard the last of bin Laden earlier this year, when his death in a one-sided firefight with Navy SEALS briefly provided Americans with a welcome distraction from their own deteriorating standard of living.
But the legacy of the 9/11 attacks he masterminded lives on -- and nowhere has the continuing impact of those attacks been more glaring than in Texas and Michigan.
Reversal of fortune
In the years immediately preceding 9/11, American consumers were spending money on all sorts of things, especially cars and trucks. At the end of 2000, nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults expected to make a large purchase within the next 12 months; 23% were specifically in the market for a car or truck.
With gasoline prices hovering around $1.25 a gallon, many of those shoppers coveted one of the shiny new SUVs on which Detroit's domestic automakers had mortgaged their (and Michigan's) future.
Then, on Sept. 11, 2001, bin Laden's minions threw a wrench into everything. The economic turmoil spawned by the attacks rattled Americans' confidence in their immediate economic prospects as well as their nation's security. By year's end, most of the large purchases they'd planned were on hold.
It was the beginning of a more-or-less steady erosion of consumer aspirations; by the end of 2010, only 12% of American adults expected to purchase a new vehicle within the next year.
Michiganders may be less familiar with how the economic trends set in motion by 9/11 affected Texas, but the impact there was equally profound.
The price of crude oil, which hovered around $30 a barrel in 2011 dollars when then Lt. Gov. Perry was promoted to the governor's mansion in December 2000, soared to $150 before leveling off in the $80-$90 range. Besides resuscitating Texas' oil industry, the long-term increase in energy prices incentivized the exploitation of new technologies to extract natural gas. Today, energy industries pump more than $300 billion a year into the Texas economy.
The protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan set in motion by the 9/11 attacks were more good news for Texas, which is home to a disproportionate number of large military bases. Though you shouldn't expect to hear much about it from Perry partisans, federal spending in Texas doubled during his first decade in office, exceeding $200 billion a year by 2010.
Post hoc fallacy
OK -- so maybe I've stacked the deck a little here. Plenty of other factors have contributed to Texas' dramatic jobs bonanza -- population growth, and specifically population growth fueled by immigration, is the one economists mention most often -- and the residual impact of 9/11 may be fading even as Texas continues to outperform most other states by many economic metrics.
My point is that we voters have to be very careful about confusing coincidence with causality, whether we are trying to decide which governor provided better economic stewardship or which industries and states have benefitted most from the myriad forces unleashed by 9/11.
The conditions that give rise to prosperity in one state -- or abruptly curtail the economic prospects for residents of another -- are complex, and many of them lie outside the reckoning or control of policymakers.
But if political partisans are serious about understanding how we got where we are today, they may find the trail leads, at least in part, to the watery grave of a madman who wished only the worst for Americans of every political stripe.
In the global contest for jobs and economic growth, Texas has spent the last decade eating Michigan's lunch.
But who deserves the blame -- or, if you're a Lone Star State partisan, the credit?
Is Jennifer Granholm, who served as Michigan governor from 2003-10, the person most responsible for this state's lost decade? Or does Texas' superior economic performance have more to do with the stewardship of Rick Perry, the Republican who succeeded George W. Bush as Texas' governor in 2000, remains in office and recently became the newest entrant in the crowded GOP presidential race?
One possible answer, as we approach the 10th anniversary of 9/11, is that we ought to pay more attention to the pivotal role of Osama bin Laden -- a man whose contributions to both Texas' ascent and Michigan's decline arguably eclipsed that of either state's governor.
You probably thought you'd heard the last of bin Laden earlier this year, when his death in a one-sided firefight with Navy SEALS briefly provided Americans with a welcome distraction from their own deteriorating standard of living.
But the legacy of the 9/11 attacks he masterminded lives on -- and nowhere has the continuing impact of those attacks been more glaring than in Texas and Michigan.
Reversal of fortune
In the years immediately preceding 9/11, American consumers were spending money on all sorts of things, especially cars and trucks. At the end of 2000, nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults expected to make a large purchase within the next 12 months; 23% were specifically in the market for a car or truck.
With gasoline prices hovering around $1.25 a gallon, many of those shoppers coveted one of the shiny new SUVs on which Detroit's domestic automakers had mortgaged their (and Michigan's) future.
Then, on Sept. 11, 2001, bin Laden's minions threw a wrench into everything. The economic turmoil spawned by the attacks rattled Americans' confidence in their immediate economic prospects as well as their nation's security. By year's end, most of the large purchases they'd planned were on hold.
It was the beginning of a more-or-less steady erosion of consumer aspirations; by the end of 2010, only 12% of American adults expected to purchase a new vehicle within the next year.
Michiganders may be less familiar with how the economic trends set in motion by 9/11 affected Texas, but the impact there was equally profound.
The price of crude oil, which hovered around $30 a barrel in 2011 dollars when then Lt. Gov. Perry was promoted to the governor's mansion in December 2000, soared to $150 before leveling off in the $80-$90 range. Besides resuscitating Texas' oil industry, the long-term increase in energy prices incentivized the exploitation of new technologies to extract natural gas. Today, energy industries pump more than $300 billion a year into the Texas economy.
The protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan set in motion by the 9/11 attacks were more good news for Texas, which is home to a disproportionate number of large military bases. Though you shouldn't expect to hear much about it from Perry partisans, federal spending in Texas doubled during his first decade in office, exceeding $200 billion a year by 2010.
Post hoc fallacy
OK -- so maybe I've stacked the deck a little here. Plenty of other factors have contributed to Texas' dramatic jobs bonanza -- population growth, and specifically population growth fueled by immigration, is the one economists mention most often -- and the residual impact of 9/11 may be fading even as Texas continues to outperform most other states by many economic metrics.
My point is that we voters have to be very careful about confusing coincidence with causality, whether we are trying to decide which governor provided better economic stewardship or which industries and states have benefitted most from the myriad forces unleashed by 9/11.
The conditions that give rise to prosperity in one state -- or abruptly curtail the economic prospects for residents of another -- are complex, and many of them lie outside the reckoning or control of policymakers.
But if political partisans are serious about understanding how we got where we are today, they may find the trail leads, at least in part, to the watery grave of a madman who wished only the worst for Americans of every political stripe.
25 March 2011
MICHIGAN WOOS PEOPLE TO FILL JOB VACANCIES
Available technology jobs in the Detroit area are requiring companies to be creative in their recruiting techniques to woo candidates away from California.
Currently Ford has been trying to lure engineers to the automaker to design software. They want to make Silicon Valley engineers feel at home in Detroit. They have also been going after recruits from Stanford University and Internet companies. Recruiting from local universities has also been a tactic; however, there are nowhere near enough graduates to meet the need. Detroit may be a hard win when compared to the pleasant location and climate of the Silicon Valley, which boasts itself as the technology mecca for the country. As Ford and General Motors participates in the war for talent they wine and dine their applicants and show a relaxed work atmosphere with options of telecommuting or working in jeans verses the Silicon Valley companies where suits are familiar work attire. The automakers are also challenged to get qualified candidates with their offers of salary, which are lower than California, but are quick to make clear the benefits of lower home costs and living expenses.
Expertise in cloud computing, Michigan SEO, mobile software applications and energy management are in demand in the Motor City as automakers replace car stereos with Internet radio and gasoline engines with motors powered by lithium-ion batteries. Technology job postings in the Detroit area doubled last year, making it the fastest-expanding region in the country.
Companies that work with automakers on in-car entertainment systems, such as online streaming music providers Pandora Media Inc. and Mog Inc., have opened offices in the Detroit area. Google Inc., based in Mountain View, California, has an office in Birmingham, Michigan, where it’s looking for sales associates to work with the auto industry.
With the onset of job and technology expansion in Michigan, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced in December that it will open its first satellite office in Detroit. The decision was made due to the region’s high percentage of scientists and engineers, as well as its patent output. Due to its 4,000 patents, Michigan was ranked the seventh highest patent-receiving state in 2010. The new office is likely to create about 100 new jobs to review patent filings.
Michigan lost about 413,000 jobs from December 2007 through December 2009, including 83,200 jobs in the Detroit area, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Things picked up last year, as jobs in the Detroit SEO field and Detroit area professional and business-services sector, which include many of the tech jobs, rose almost twice as fast in December as the overall Michigan job market, according to the bureau. An auto transport company may also be looking to expand with all the anticipated moves.
Dan Gilbert, chairman and founder of Quicken Loans Inc., stated that he plans on adding more jobs as well. Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, moved 1,700 of Quicken Loans’ employees into Compuware Corp. headquarters in Detroit’s Campus Martius Park area, the center of the city’s tech industry, where he plans to add 2,000 more workers.
In the building, graffiti from local artists decorate many of the walls and floors, and mini kitchens on every floor offer free slushies and snacks. When the space is fully finished, Quicken also will have a basketball court for employees.
Gilbert’s venture capital firm’s goal is to fund social media, cloud computing and other software companies in Detroit. So far, Detroit Venture Partners has received more than 200 proposals for investments and has term sheets under consideration for six that may be signed in the next 30 days.
Gilbert also helped fund a planned light-rail project for downtown, formed a venture capital firm to invest in startups, and purchased a historic theater with plans to renovate it as an incubator space for budding technology companies. His objective was to improve Detroit’s downtown to draw people to move back to the area which helps both recruiters and candidates.
06 November 2010
California to send Inmates to Michigan private Prison
The Detroit Free Press
A private prison in Baldwin that closed five years ago when Michigan stopped housing youthful offenders there will soon be taking up to 2,600 California prisoners.
California prison officials have signed a $60-million-a-year contract with GEO Group Inc. to house the inmates for the next three years. The former Michigan Youth Correctional Facility 65 miles north of Grand Rapids was closed in 2005.
The state ended its use of the prison, run for six years by GEO Group, after state officials decided they could save $18 million by sending the young inmates housed at the Lake County facility to other prisons.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm welcomed the news today, saying on her Facebook page that it would mean more than 450 jobs.
California prison officials have signed a $60-million-a-year contract with GEO Group Inc. to house the inmates for the next three years. The former Michigan Youth Correctional Facility 65 miles north of Grand Rapids was closed in 2005.
The state ended its use of the prison, run for six years by GEO Group, after state officials decided they could save $18 million by sending the young inmates housed at the Lake County facility to other prisons.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm welcomed the news today, saying on her Facebook page that it would mean more than 450 jobs.
11 October 2010
Contractor Recruiting Event in Lansing draws Hundreds
Lansing State Journal
LANSING -- Joanne Fairmont Yinger is an interior designer always looking for the right work.
With the Ingham County Land Bank recruiting for hands willing to renovate foreclosed homes, she had little to lose by checking in at the third annual Contractor Recruitment Day.
“There has to be a role some place for an interior designer,” she said.
Yinger perused the information booths set up at Gier Community Center today and learned more about the proper insurance she might need if she won a land bank project funded by federal dollars.
At the end of the day, she said she knew her attendance at the event drawing approximately 200 people was worth the effort.
“It still feels like a feasible thing,” Yinger said, planning to Tweet and Facebook her recruitment day activities later in the day. “I’m mini-networking as well.”
The land bank advertised its well-attended event, which surmounted last year’s attendance by more than 100, by sending out more than 1,000 fliers.
Eric Schertzing, the land bank’s chair, said he’s hoping to expand the pool of businesses he now works with.
Within the past year, he said, the land bank has worked with approximately 100 businesses that renovated 56 homes.
With the Ingham County Land Bank recruiting for hands willing to renovate foreclosed homes, she had little to lose by checking in at the third annual Contractor Recruitment Day.
“There has to be a role some place for an interior designer,” she said.
Yinger perused the information booths set up at Gier Community Center today and learned more about the proper insurance she might need if she won a land bank project funded by federal dollars.
At the end of the day, she said she knew her attendance at the event drawing approximately 200 people was worth the effort.
“It still feels like a feasible thing,” Yinger said, planning to Tweet and Facebook her recruitment day activities later in the day. “I’m mini-networking as well.”
The land bank advertised its well-attended event, which surmounted last year’s attendance by more than 100, by sending out more than 1,000 fliers.
Eric Schertzing, the land bank’s chair, said he’s hoping to expand the pool of businesses he now works with.
Within the past year, he said, the land bank has worked with approximately 100 businesses that renovated 56 homes.
06 October 2010
University of Michigan Study Examines State Job Futures
WJRT
For those wondering if the the job market will ever get any better, there are some answers from a new study by University of Michigan economists.
The good news, the economists say, is the job market finally hit bottom this year. And after losing nearly 250,000 jobs in a five-county region over the past decade, the number of jobs will actually start increasing next year.
"It's going to be good for the people who are employed, because there will be less risk that they'll lose their job, but for a lot of people who are unemployed, it's not going to look any better," said economist Don Grimes.
In it's first-ever report to the five-county Economic Growth Alliance Region -- which includes leaders from Genesee, Lapeer, Livingston, Oakland and St. Clair counties -- a team of U of M economists have analyzed the trends and spelled out what lies ahead in the years 2011 and 2012.
"House prices will still be low, and we don't see any improvement in people's 401-K balances, either," Grimes said.
But they do project a net gain in jobs in 2011 -- finally a turnaround from the past nine years, which have seen annual job losses.
The net gain, they say, is less than 3,000 new jobs for this region in 20111 and more than 8,000 jobs added in 2012.
The sectors that will grow include information services, professional scientific private education, construction, medical and health services.
As for the jobs of the future, manufacturing , they say, will continue to be making up its numbers till 2012.
Services like barbershops will have to wait for growth until people stop saving as much and start spending more, but the next few years do not look good at all for government employees and public school jobs.
One other interesting trend is it appears the self-employed sector has been growing as the number of traditional jobs has shrunk.
16 September 2010
Marthon Oil Project set to create Construction Jobs in Detroit
Detroit Free Press
After a lengthy delay, Marathon Oil plans to significantly ramp up work next summer that will expand its oil refinery in southwest Detroit, creating more than a thousand new construction jobs.
The Houston-based oil company is on track to complete the $2.2-billion refinery expansion by the fourth quarter of 2012, said Gary Heminger, Marathon’s executive vice president of downstream operations.
Currently, 650 Michigan concrete contractors are working on the project but those numbers will rise to 1,800 to 2,000 by next summer. The company also has started the process of hiring 135 new employees for the refinery, half of whom will be contract workers.
The expansion of Michigan’s only oil refinery was originally supposed to be completed in this year’s fourth quarter. But in October 2008, Marathon delayed the project because of the downturn in the economy. The refinery supplies 20% of Michigan’s gasoline.
When Michigan concrete construction is complete, the refinery will be able to process 120,000 barrels of oil a day, up from the current 106,000 barrels. But in a major change, most of the oil will be heavier crude from Canada’s oil sands rather than light crude from the Gulf of Mexico, Oklahoma and other areas.
The Houston-based oil company is on track to complete the $2.2-billion refinery expansion by the fourth quarter of 2012, said Gary Heminger, Marathon’s executive vice president of downstream operations.
Currently, 650 Michigan concrete contractors are working on the project but those numbers will rise to 1,800 to 2,000 by next summer. The company also has started the process of hiring 135 new employees for the refinery, half of whom will be contract workers.
The expansion of Michigan’s only oil refinery was originally supposed to be completed in this year’s fourth quarter. But in October 2008, Marathon delayed the project because of the downturn in the economy. The refinery supplies 20% of Michigan’s gasoline.
When Michigan concrete construction is complete, the refinery will be able to process 120,000 barrels of oil a day, up from the current 106,000 barrels. But in a major change, most of the oil will be heavier crude from Canada’s oil sands rather than light crude from the Gulf of Mexico, Oklahoma and other areas.
02 September 2010
Jobs Essential To Future Housing Market
Every Thursday the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors' reviews data he deems critical to the future housing and real state markets.
His focus is not about home prices or interest rates. What the economist finds highly important is a report reflecting new jobless claims. He views the country's employment situation as an essential factor to stabilizing the U.S. housing and real estate sectors.
"We need jobs; jobs (are) the key thing," said Lawerance Yun, the chief economist of nation's realty market. He lectured to the Economic Club of Traverse City on Friday as a guest speaker of the Traverse Area Association of Realtors.
Yun warned that an array of issues are influencing the current housing market. The challenges range from high foreclosure rates to strick lending and credit risk management practices to an over-abundance of unsold properties.
In a positive light, he also noted the country's housing market as well as overall economy is capable of a quick rebound if the job market improves. In addition, as more corporations start to invest in large sums of cash they have earned over the recession, the economic conditions can grow even stronger.
"We still have a very long way to get to full employment," said Yun, who projected up to five years before the country's jobless rates taper to pre-recession levels.
In his speech, Yun targeted the significant fall-off in the country's real estate sales in July but claimed it was not an unexpected turn of events. As the tax credit for federal homebuyers reached its expiration, interested investors flocked to their local home buyers agency to finalize purchases by late June. It wasn't unusual to see home sales drop the following month, he said.
"It's not a 'sky-is-falling' scenario," Yun said.
He projects a "pause" in sales that will continue into September but mentioned real estate sales in the fourth-quarter will be the underlying predictor of the future housing industry. If fourth-quarter real estate sales are consistent with the number in previous years, he expects the overall market for homes will continue to stabilize.
One Raleigh real estate agent, Ann Davis, who works exclusively for a buyer's only agency, has already seen improvements in sales as an emerging influx of families and individuals migrate to North Carolina for career opportunities.
"It is culmination of being in a location that is higher in demand as well as providing niche home buying services that your typical Raleigh real estate agency does not offer," Davis said. She is hopeful that sales will continue to thrive.
Yen warned listeners during his speech in Traverse City that if sales figures are measurably lower in the upcoming months, the country's economy may be headed for a "double-dip" recession.
"If the fourth quarter matches up with the prior fourth quarters, I think the worst is over," he said.
Yun pinpointed other areas of the country's economy in his talk. He touched on the spectrum of opinions regarding where the economy is headed, with some economists foreseeing risks of inflation as others are more worried about prices growing stagnant.
Positive signs do however exist in the housing market. Default rates on recent real estate and home sales have improved, and precise loan origination software has enabled lending practices to minimizing the instances in which interested buyers are purchasing homes that are far more expensive than they can afford. Such tools have also improved credit risk analysis efforts which also contribute to the financial mix of the housing market.
"I think we have to return to the old-fashioned American way ... stay within your budget," Yun said.
As for Ms. Davis and her Raleigh home buyers agency, her future sales figures will a solid source for nationwide projections. She is going to be the one to watch, for Ann is already at the forefront of the emerging real estate market trends.
27 August 2010
Autoworkers Adjust to Life Without Jobs Bank as GM, Ford Seek to Rebound
Bloomberg
General Motors Co. gave Kevin Dorey’s father a paycheck for 34 years, kept him working near home and let him out in time for his kids’ football games.
“‘It’s steady’ -- that’s what my dad always told me about General Motors,” Dorey, 44, said over chicken wings and beer at the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s sports bar in his hometown of Saginaw Township, Michigan. “For me, it’s been anything but steady.”
Kevin Dorey worked at three plants in three years until his most recent location in Orion Township, Michigan, which required a 90-minute commute, closed in November. Previously, he would have received full pay during the layoff while GM revamped the factory for a new car. The United Auto Workers agreed last year to give up that benefit, known as the jobs bank, and the paychecks stopped coming in July.
Less employment security, lower starting pay and stricter work rules signal a new era for the jobs viewed as a ticket to the middle class since Henry Ford’s $5-a-day wage in 1914. The changes also mean GM, Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. are free of the obligations that helped sink the industry in 2009 and can make money with lower sales volumes.
UAW President Bob King said in June that he’ll seek to win back benefits and rebuild the union’s power when contract negotiations begin next year. Automakers may seek even more concessions as sales remain close to a 30-year low.
In the meantime, autoworkers are adjusting to a new way of life in an industry where deliveries fell to 10.4 million vehicles in 2009, the lowest level since 1982, the year Dorey got his driver’s license. Sales averaged 16.8 million a year from 2000 to 2007.
Distant Transfers
Pedro Gonzales accepted a transfer in May from a GM plant in Pontiac, Michigan, to one in Lordstown, Ohio, to avoid a long layoff and slipping to the bottom of the list of workers to be recalled under new union rules.
For two months, he and three other workers stayed in a hotel and a two-bedroom apartment, where he slept on an air mattress in the living room. On weekends, he drove more than four hours to see his wife, mother and five children before moving them to Ohio this month.
“The people here are nice, and the work seems stable, so I decided to stay,” said Gonzales, 42, who assembles instrument panels for the Chevrolet Cruze small car. “I don’t want to move my family again.”
Rejecting Transfers
Workers previously were able to turn down transfers farther than 50 miles from their plant and remain in the jobs bank, said Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There would have been 20,000 workers in the jobs bank at the start of 2010 if the program still existed, he said.
Laid-off employees with fewer than 10 years of experience now get partial pay for 26 weeks, while those who’ve worked longer can get paid for as much as a year. Workers then move to a transition support program, about equal to collecting unemployment, for an additional 26 weeks to one year, McAlinden said.
Wages also are declining, with new hourly production workers starting at $14 an hour instead of $28. The combined cuts reduced Detroit-based GM’s average labor cost to $58 an hour from $74 two years ago, McAlinden said. The new $14-an-hour workers, which could account for 20 percent of the labor force eventually, will drive GM, Ford and Chrysler’s hourly costs below the $56 for Toyota Motor Corp.’s most senior U.S. hourly workers, he said.
‘Solidly Profitable’
GM is now positioned to break even during troughs in demand, Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre, who will cede the title to Daniel Akerson next month, said in June. Ford, based in Dearborn, Michigan, will be “solidly profitable” in 2010, CEO Alan Mulally has said.
Those improved prospects are setting up a fight during contract talks in 2011. Ford, the only U.S. automaker that didn’t file for bankruptcy or receive government assistance last year, is seeking parity with GM and Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler, which won a freeze on wages for new hires until 2015 and a prohibition on some strikes for five years.
The union wants automakers to restore some of the pay raises, annual bonuses and cost-of-living adjustments it surrendered to keep the companies afloat last year.
“It’s really important to understand and stress that all the auto companies were profitable and successful paying the wages and benefits they did when they had good product and product the customer wanted,” King said in an interview at the UAW’s Solidarity House headquarters in Detroit. He declined to specify which benefits he’d seek in the negotiations and said he didn’t think it was possible to get back everything the union gave up.
Union leaders likely will be successful in clawing back some compensation and benefits, said Bob Schulz, an auto analyst for Standard & Poor’s.
“It’s going to raise costs, it’s just a question of how and how much,” he said.
‘Time Warp’
Union leaders and workers looking to win back concessions are stuck in a “time warp,” said David Littmann, senior economist for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research organization in Midland, Michigan, that promotes free-market principles.
“They want to make things the way they were, and they’re not,” Littmann said.
The jobs bank, which had a combined 25,000 Ford, GM and Chrysler workers at its peak in the early 1990s, was originally designed to retain trained workers who were temporarily displaced by productivity or business cycles. The program later became a symbol of the benefits union workers received as the U.S. government debated approving funds to save the industry.
“It became the welfare mother who drives a Cadillac,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California-Berkeley. “It became the symbol of what was wrong with welfare.”
The program’s stigma and the nation’s 9.5 percent unemployment rate will make it difficult for the union to win back some benefits, he said.
Dorey, who said he was never in the jobs bank, said he probably will be on the second shift when production at the Orion plant restarts next year. He’ll start work in the mid- afternoon and won’t get home until 4 a.m., leaving the divorced father little time to spend with his 11-year-old son.
“He’s at that point where we do a lot together,” Dorey said. “If I’m working second shift, how is that even possible?”
“‘It’s steady’ -- that’s what my dad always told me about General Motors,” Dorey, 44, said over chicken wings and beer at the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s sports bar in his hometown of Saginaw Township, Michigan. “For me, it’s been anything but steady.”
Kevin Dorey worked at three plants in three years until his most recent location in Orion Township, Michigan, which required a 90-minute commute, closed in November. Previously, he would have received full pay during the layoff while GM revamped the factory for a new car. The United Auto Workers agreed last year to give up that benefit, known as the jobs bank, and the paychecks stopped coming in July.
Less employment security, lower starting pay and stricter work rules signal a new era for the jobs viewed as a ticket to the middle class since Henry Ford’s $5-a-day wage in 1914. The changes also mean GM, Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. are free of the obligations that helped sink the industry in 2009 and can make money with lower sales volumes.
UAW President Bob King said in June that he’ll seek to win back benefits and rebuild the union’s power when contract negotiations begin next year. Automakers may seek even more concessions as sales remain close to a 30-year low.
In the meantime, autoworkers are adjusting to a new way of life in an industry where deliveries fell to 10.4 million vehicles in 2009, the lowest level since 1982, the year Dorey got his driver’s license. Sales averaged 16.8 million a year from 2000 to 2007.
Distant Transfers
Pedro Gonzales accepted a transfer in May from a GM plant in Pontiac, Michigan, to one in Lordstown, Ohio, to avoid a long layoff and slipping to the bottom of the list of workers to be recalled under new union rules.
For two months, he and three other workers stayed in a hotel and a two-bedroom apartment, where he slept on an air mattress in the living room. On weekends, he drove more than four hours to see his wife, mother and five children before moving them to Ohio this month.
“The people here are nice, and the work seems stable, so I decided to stay,” said Gonzales, 42, who assembles instrument panels for the Chevrolet Cruze small car. “I don’t want to move my family again.”
Rejecting Transfers
Workers previously were able to turn down transfers farther than 50 miles from their plant and remain in the jobs bank, said Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There would have been 20,000 workers in the jobs bank at the start of 2010 if the program still existed, he said.
Laid-off employees with fewer than 10 years of experience now get partial pay for 26 weeks, while those who’ve worked longer can get paid for as much as a year. Workers then move to a transition support program, about equal to collecting unemployment, for an additional 26 weeks to one year, McAlinden said.
Wages also are declining, with new hourly production workers starting at $14 an hour instead of $28. The combined cuts reduced Detroit-based GM’s average labor cost to $58 an hour from $74 two years ago, McAlinden said. The new $14-an-hour workers, which could account for 20 percent of the labor force eventually, will drive GM, Ford and Chrysler’s hourly costs below the $56 for Toyota Motor Corp.’s most senior U.S. hourly workers, he said.
‘Solidly Profitable’
GM is now positioned to break even during troughs in demand, Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre, who will cede the title to Daniel Akerson next month, said in June. Ford, based in Dearborn, Michigan, will be “solidly profitable” in 2010, CEO Alan Mulally has said.
Those improved prospects are setting up a fight during contract talks in 2011. Ford, the only U.S. automaker that didn’t file for bankruptcy or receive government assistance last year, is seeking parity with GM and Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler, which won a freeze on wages for new hires until 2015 and a prohibition on some strikes for five years.
The union wants automakers to restore some of the pay raises, annual bonuses and cost-of-living adjustments it surrendered to keep the companies afloat last year.
“It’s really important to understand and stress that all the auto companies were profitable and successful paying the wages and benefits they did when they had good product and product the customer wanted,” King said in an interview at the UAW’s Solidarity House headquarters in Detroit. He declined to specify which benefits he’d seek in the negotiations and said he didn’t think it was possible to get back everything the union gave up.
Union leaders likely will be successful in clawing back some compensation and benefits, said Bob Schulz, an auto analyst for Standard & Poor’s.
“It’s going to raise costs, it’s just a question of how and how much,” he said.
‘Time Warp’
Union leaders and workers looking to win back concessions are stuck in a “time warp,” said David Littmann, senior economist for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research organization in Midland, Michigan, that promotes free-market principles.
“They want to make things the way they were, and they’re not,” Littmann said.
The jobs bank, which had a combined 25,000 Ford, GM and Chrysler workers at its peak in the early 1990s, was originally designed to retain trained workers who were temporarily displaced by productivity or business cycles. The program later became a symbol of the benefits union workers received as the U.S. government debated approving funds to save the industry.
“It became the welfare mother who drives a Cadillac,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California-Berkeley. “It became the symbol of what was wrong with welfare.”
The program’s stigma and the nation’s 9.5 percent unemployment rate will make it difficult for the union to win back some benefits, he said.
Dorey, who said he was never in the jobs bank, said he probably will be on the second shift when production at the Orion plant restarts next year. He’ll start work in the mid- afternoon and won’t get home until 4 a.m., leaving the divorced father little time to spend with his 11-year-old son.
“He’s at that point where we do a lot together,” Dorey said. “If I’m working second shift, how is that even possible?”
20 August 2010
Employment Numbers Vary Widely State to State
Reuters
Michigan manufacturing jobs stabilize
Michigan manufacturing jobs stabilize
U.S. government data released on Friday showed employment conditions varied widely from state to state in July, indicating that the economic recovery may not be consistent across the country.
Compared to a year earlier, the jobless rate fell in 27 states and rose in 20.
North Dakota, buoyed by a strong natural resources sector, again had the lowest rate in the country, at 3.6 percent. Nevada remained the state with the highest unemployment rate, at a record 14.3 percent.
Michigan followed with 13.1 percent, but the state also had the largest increase in employment from June, adding 27,800 jobs.
For many months Michigan, home to major U.S. automakers, suffered the highest jobless rate in the country, but since the start of the year the rate has slowly dropped.
Most of the jobs gains in July were in manufacturing. But the state labor department said that even without new factory jobs the July payrolls number was the highest of the year.
"Michigan's manufacturing job market has stabilized thus far in 2010," said Rick Waclawek, director of the state's labor bureau. "Automakers and suppliers minimized July retooling layoffs reflecting streamlined production schedules, strong vehicle sales, and lean inventories."
Altogether, the number of jobs increased in 37 states and in Washington, DC.
North Carolina lost the most jobs in July, at 29,800, followed by New Jersey.
Over the year, payrolls grew in 30 states and Washington, DC, and dropped in 19 states.
In Georgia, the unemployment rate declined to 9.9 percent. But it was still the 34th straight month in which the state's jobless rate exceeded the national one, currently 9.5 percent.
"Georgia's job market continued to deteriorate," said State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond in a statement.
"Although the unemployment rate remained virtually unchanged, a growing number of discouraged workers dropped out of the workforce," he said.
Nationally, the employment picture remains a confusing jumble. On Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department reported new jobless claims hit a nine-month high last week.
Also on Thursday the head of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf, said the U.S. jobless rate will not drop below 5 percent until 2014. The rate has been gradually declining after hitting 10.1 percent in October, a high not seen since 1983.
Florida highlighted the uneven labor market. In July the state, which was hurt especially hard by the housing market downturn, saw its unemployment rate rise to 11.5 percent while the number of jobs increased by 5,700.
Pennsylvania added 3,400 jobs in July, bringing the number of private positions created in the state since the beginning of the year to 52,400. But the state's unemployment rate also rose to 9.3 percent.
More than 8,400 Pennsylvanians were working on nearly 200 highway and bridge repair projects funded by the federal economic stimulus plan in July, Governor Ed Rendell said.
"Hiring is occurring, but we need to accelerate the pace and do more to put Pennsylvanians back to work by making targeted investments in our transportation infrastructure that will create tens of thousands of jobs," he said.
17 August 2010
Papermaking Days Appear Over at Sappi's Muskegon Mill Site
MLive
If anyone in Muskegon was under the impression that someone would again be making paper at 2400 Lakeshore, Sappi Fine Paper North America seems to have ended those hopes.
The company says its will have a Sept. 29 auction of its papermaking machinery in Muskegon.
Sappi permanently closed its Muskegon mill in July 2009 and put the 119-acre site on Muskegon Lake up for sale with hopes of selling to a papermaker who is not a competitor.
But, a year later, Sappi has hired LiquiTec Industries of Mequon, Wis., to sell its assets to the highest bidder at the public auction. The equipment for sale includes paper machine No. 4. Company officials said the remaining paper machine No. 5 already has been sold outside of the auction.
"It's disappointing," said Steve Keglovitz, a former Sappi worker and president of the plant's labor union, adding that former workers have been told that machine No. 5's new owner is taking it to Mexico. "I knew they were not doing anything that would keep papermaking in the plant."
As LiquiTec sells equipment in the company's wood yard, pulp mill, bleach plant, coating kitchen, finishing operation and laboratory, it seems that Sappi has not found a buyer for the entire paper mill.
Sappi spokeswoman Amy Olson said the company has no new information on the sale of its Muskegon mill. Sappi is a global papermaking company headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with its North American headquarters in Boston.
Economic developers familiar with Sappi's attempts to sell its mill property say there are multiple parties interested in the company's Muskegon real estate. They indicate that the paper mill's large power plant is one of the most valued assets remaining because it can burn wood waste, a renewable fuel.
However, buyers are only interested in portions of the site, which has nearly a mile of shoreline on Muskegon Lake, the economic developers say. An environmental agreement between Sappi and any prospective buyer will be a major issue for the parties to resolve, they say.
Since closing last year, Sappi has come to a severance agreement with its former union -- United Steel Workers of America Local 1015. At the time it closed, the plant employed 190 union and salaried employees. Over the plant's 109-year history, it had employed as many as 1,200 workers.
The company also agreed to a property tax abatement settlement with the city of Muskegon. Sappi is paying local taxing units $1.25 million in back taxes and the city of Muskegon an additional $500,000 for an "economic development fund," the parties agreed in May. The company had 10 industrial tax abatements that were granted based on specific employment levels that are no longer being maintained.
"We certainly understand the need for Sappi to sell its assets within the property," Muskegon Mayor Steve Warmington said. "But the city continues to work with the company on a resolution of who will eventually purchase the land and how it will be used in the coming decades."
The community debate on what should happen with the Sappi property is ongoing.
Some believe, with 13.9 percent unemployment in Muskegon County, the site needs to continue to generate manufacturing jobs.
"We want to still create jobs out there," Keglovitz said. "We need to hold Sappi accountable for keeping the powerhouse. It could be the beginning of something new if energy companies are looking at it."
Others call for the cleanup of the century-old industrial site and redevelopment of the property into condominiums, a marina and water-based businesses.
The company says its will have a Sept. 29 auction of its papermaking machinery in Muskegon.
Sappi permanently closed its Muskegon mill in July 2009 and put the 119-acre site on Muskegon Lake up for sale with hopes of selling to a papermaker who is not a competitor.
But, a year later, Sappi has hired LiquiTec Industries of Mequon, Wis., to sell its assets to the highest bidder at the public auction. The equipment for sale includes paper machine No. 4. Company officials said the remaining paper machine No. 5 already has been sold outside of the auction.
"It's disappointing," said Steve Keglovitz, a former Sappi worker and president of the plant's labor union, adding that former workers have been told that machine No. 5's new owner is taking it to Mexico. "I knew they were not doing anything that would keep papermaking in the plant."
As LiquiTec sells equipment in the company's wood yard, pulp mill, bleach plant, coating kitchen, finishing operation and laboratory, it seems that Sappi has not found a buyer for the entire paper mill.
Sappi spokeswoman Amy Olson said the company has no new information on the sale of its Muskegon mill. Sappi is a global papermaking company headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with its North American headquarters in Boston.
Economic developers familiar with Sappi's attempts to sell its mill property say there are multiple parties interested in the company's Muskegon real estate. They indicate that the paper mill's large power plant is one of the most valued assets remaining because it can burn wood waste, a renewable fuel.
However, buyers are only interested in portions of the site, which has nearly a mile of shoreline on Muskegon Lake, the economic developers say. An environmental agreement between Sappi and any prospective buyer will be a major issue for the parties to resolve, they say.
Since closing last year, Sappi has come to a severance agreement with its former union -- United Steel Workers of America Local 1015. At the time it closed, the plant employed 190 union and salaried employees. Over the plant's 109-year history, it had employed as many as 1,200 workers.
The company also agreed to a property tax abatement settlement with the city of Muskegon. Sappi is paying local taxing units $1.25 million in back taxes and the city of Muskegon an additional $500,000 for an "economic development fund," the parties agreed in May. The company had 10 industrial tax abatements that were granted based on specific employment levels that are no longer being maintained.
"We certainly understand the need for Sappi to sell its assets within the property," Muskegon Mayor Steve Warmington said. "But the city continues to work with the company on a resolution of who will eventually purchase the land and how it will be used in the coming decades."
The community debate on what should happen with the Sappi property is ongoing.
Some believe, with 13.9 percent unemployment in Muskegon County, the site needs to continue to generate manufacturing jobs.
"We want to still create jobs out there," Keglovitz said. "We need to hold Sappi accountable for keeping the powerhouse. It could be the beginning of something new if energy companies are looking at it."
Others call for the cleanup of the century-old industrial site and redevelopment of the property into condominiums, a marina and water-based businesses.
23 July 2010
States get set to Resume Unemployment Benefits
USA Today
State unemployment agencies are gearing up to resume sending unemployment payments to millions of people as Congress moves to ship President Obama a measure to restore lapsed benefits.
After months of increasingly bitter stalemate, the Senate passed the measure Wednesday by a 59-39 vote. Obama is poised to sign the measure into law after a final House vote scheduled for today.
It's a welcome relief to 2½ million people who have been out of work for six months or more and have seen their benefits lapse.
Under best-case scenarios, unemployed people who have been denied jobless benefits because of a partisan Senate standoff over renewing them can expect retroactive payments as early as next week in some states.
In other states, it will take longer, possibly as long as six weeks.
State unemployment and labor agencies have been preparing for weeks for Congress to restore jobless payments averaging $309 a week for almost 5 million people whose 26 weeks of state benefits have run out. Those people are enrolled in a federally financed program providing up to 73 additional weeks of unemployment benefits.
About half of those eligible have had their benefits cut off since funding expired June 2. They are eligible for lump-sum retroactive payments that are typically delivered directly to their bank accounts or credited to state-issued debit cards.
The Senate continued debating the measure a full day after a GOP filibuster was defeated by a 60-40 vote. Senate rules required 30 hours of debate.
Democrats tout the economy-boosting effect of unemployment checks because most beneficiaries spend them immediately, and they say that paying for them with cuts to other programs dilutes the stimulative effect.
"Extending unemployment insurance isn't just the right thing to do. It's also the smart thing to do for our economy," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
Economists say the measure will likely have a modest beneficial effect on the economy. It represents less than one-quarter of 1% of the size of the $14.6 trillion economy and is far smaller than last year's $862 billion stimulus legislation.
Republicans have blocked Democratic add-ons, such as aid to state governments, that could have meant a greater economic boost.
After months of increasingly bitter stalemate, the Senate passed the measure Wednesday by a 59-39 vote. Obama is poised to sign the measure into law after a final House vote scheduled for today.
It's a welcome relief to 2½ million people who have been out of work for six months or more and have seen their benefits lapse.
Under best-case scenarios, unemployed people who have been denied jobless benefits because of a partisan Senate standoff over renewing them can expect retroactive payments as early as next week in some states.
In other states, it will take longer, possibly as long as six weeks.
State unemployment and labor agencies have been preparing for weeks for Congress to restore jobless payments averaging $309 a week for almost 5 million people whose 26 weeks of state benefits have run out. Those people are enrolled in a federally financed program providing up to 73 additional weeks of unemployment benefits.
About half of those eligible have had their benefits cut off since funding expired June 2. They are eligible for lump-sum retroactive payments that are typically delivered directly to their bank accounts or credited to state-issued debit cards.
The Senate continued debating the measure a full day after a GOP filibuster was defeated by a 60-40 vote. Senate rules required 30 hours of debate.
Democrats tout the economy-boosting effect of unemployment checks because most beneficiaries spend them immediately, and they say that paying for them with cuts to other programs dilutes the stimulative effect.
"Extending unemployment insurance isn't just the right thing to do. It's also the smart thing to do for our economy," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
Economists say the measure will likely have a modest beneficial effect on the economy. It represents less than one-quarter of 1% of the size of the $14.6 trillion economy and is far smaller than last year's $862 billion stimulus legislation.
Republicans have blocked Democratic add-ons, such as aid to state governments, that could have meant a greater economic boost.
15 July 2010
Ficano Goes to China, Brings Back Jobs
The Detroit Free Press
Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano first traveled to China in 2005 and will make his sixth visit in November, to court companies and investors interested in doing business in the jobs-starved Detroit region.
It's taken awhile for Ficano's efforts to pay off on a major scale, but last week's news that a Chinese group will buy the $2.1-billion-a-year, 6,200-employee Nexteer auto parts operation from General Motors is a big step forward.
Tempo Group, a Beijing-based auto supplier and key player in the Nexteer deal, was the first Chinese company Ficano lured to Michigan after meeting its owner, Tianbao Zhou, on that first China trip in 2005. Tempo opened a research center in Canton Township two years later.
Ficano told me last week that Zhou apologized to him because the Nexteer acquisition is in Saginaw, not Wayne County. "I said, 'Hey, don't worry about it. It's in Michigan,' " Ficano said.
Another significant aspect of the Nexteer deal is a concessionary labor contract with the UAW that paved the way for the sale. The five-year pact, ratified by Saginaw workers a week before the sale deal was struck, calls for a cash payment to UAW workers in return for giving up raises promised earlier, and a buydown provision to lower the wages of skilled trades workers.
When Ficano first talked with Tempo officials years ago, they were mulling whether to invest in Michigan or in Canada. "They were concerned about Michigan's negative labor reputation," Ficano said.
After Ficano told them Canada had strong labor unions, too, he arranged a meeting between Tempo executives and UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles. Settles convinced them that the union was flexible and could do what was necessary to deliver the productivity Tempo needed, at a wages-and-benefits cost that would enable them to compete.
Four years after that conversation, a big unionized Michigan auto plant is about to become Chinese-owned.
GM's Nexteer steering column operations will be sold to Pacific Century Motors, a joint venture between Tempo and E-Town, the investment arm of the Beijing municipal government. A ceremonial signing is planned Monday at GM's Renaissance Center headquarters; the deal is to close later this year. Purchase price was estimated by Bloomberg News at $450 million.
Last year, Tempo was a joint-venture partner in the $100-million acquisition of Delphi's brakes and suspension business, along with the Beijing government and another Chinese firm, Capitol Iron & Steel.
After a virtual halt to buzz about Chinese investment in the U.S. during the economic upheaval of 2008 and 2009, deals are now getting done, said Peter Theut, founder of China Bridge, a new Ann Arbor consulting firm focusing on trade and investment.
China has capital to invest, at a time when lots of U.S. companies are having a hard time getting bank loans.
It's funny how old hangups, whether they be about Michigan's labor climate or China's currency manipulation, can fade away when two sides need what the other's got.
It's taken awhile for Ficano's efforts to pay off on a major scale, but last week's news that a Chinese group will buy the $2.1-billion-a-year, 6,200-employee Nexteer auto parts operation from General Motors is a big step forward.
Tempo Group, a Beijing-based auto supplier and key player in the Nexteer deal, was the first Chinese company Ficano lured to Michigan after meeting its owner, Tianbao Zhou, on that first China trip in 2005. Tempo opened a research center in Canton Township two years later.
Ficano told me last week that Zhou apologized to him because the Nexteer acquisition is in Saginaw, not Wayne County. "I said, 'Hey, don't worry about it. It's in Michigan,' " Ficano said.
Another significant aspect of the Nexteer deal is a concessionary labor contract with the UAW that paved the way for the sale. The five-year pact, ratified by Saginaw workers a week before the sale deal was struck, calls for a cash payment to UAW workers in return for giving up raises promised earlier, and a buydown provision to lower the wages of skilled trades workers.
When Ficano first talked with Tempo officials years ago, they were mulling whether to invest in Michigan or in Canada. "They were concerned about Michigan's negative labor reputation," Ficano said.
After Ficano told them Canada had strong labor unions, too, he arranged a meeting between Tempo executives and UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles. Settles convinced them that the union was flexible and could do what was necessary to deliver the productivity Tempo needed, at a wages-and-benefits cost that would enable them to compete.
Four years after that conversation, a big unionized Michigan auto plant is about to become Chinese-owned.
GM's Nexteer steering column operations will be sold to Pacific Century Motors, a joint venture between Tempo and E-Town, the investment arm of the Beijing municipal government. A ceremonial signing is planned Monday at GM's Renaissance Center headquarters; the deal is to close later this year. Purchase price was estimated by Bloomberg News at $450 million.
Last year, Tempo was a joint-venture partner in the $100-million acquisition of Delphi's brakes and suspension business, along with the Beijing government and another Chinese firm, Capitol Iron & Steel.
After a virtual halt to buzz about Chinese investment in the U.S. during the economic upheaval of 2008 and 2009, deals are now getting done, said Peter Theut, founder of China Bridge, a new Ann Arbor consulting firm focusing on trade and investment.
China has capital to invest, at a time when lots of U.S. companies are having a hard time getting bank loans.
It's funny how old hangups, whether they be about Michigan's labor climate or China's currency manipulation, can fade away when two sides need what the other's got.
07 July 2010
Ten Paths to a 'Double-Dip' Recession
Kalamazoo Gazette
The recession is over and the U.S. economy is recovering, right?
Or, are we headed for another period of contraction, the so-called double-dip?
Well, according to Grand Valley State University economist Brian Long, the answer is still up in the air.
"Most everyone agrees that our current recovery is still somewhat fragile, and that it would not take very much to push us back into a recession," Long wrote today in a paper released with his monthly survey of West Michigan's industrial economy.
Long said if several of the 10 factors he identifies below were to converge, there would be a good chance of a new recession gripping the country.
"There is a possibility that several negative factors could converge to cause trouble," he said. "Hence, there is still about a 1-in-3 chance that our current recovery could be stopped. With each passing month of good statistics, these odds decline."
Below are Long's 10 factors that could cause a double-dip recession:
It's all in your mind
"First and foremost, the biggest cause for a double dip, if it occurs, may be that we have talked ourselves into it," Long said. "Given that all spending at both the consumer and industrial level is somewhat psychological, and with enough pessimism, it is possible to talk our way back into a recession."
Consumers lack confidence
Long says the major consumer confidence indexes remain low as many people still haven't seen full recovery of their 401(k) plans and home values. "It may take years before home prices return to their 2006 valuations. Many people who took out second mortgages and home equity loans just a few years ago are now seeing the error of their ways, and have been forced to reduced their spending."
Show me the jobs
It may take about four or five years for the nation's unemployment rate, currently around 10 percent, to return to the 5 percent range, Long said. "In every post-war recession up until now, the unemployed eventually found new employment within a matter of a few months, especially in the industrial sector." But that's definitely not the case today. "In the case of unskilled industrial jobs in 2010 — they are simply gone, never to return."
What's your home worth?
The housing market is going to be screwed up for some time, Long said. "Even though there is considerable evidence that home prices have now stabilized, it may take as many as 20 or 30 years before home prices return to their 2005 levels in many parts of the country," Long said. That affects construction workers, banks and borrowers.
As certain as death
Long said he's not sure what impact "the expiration of the tax cuts at the end of this year" will have on companies' ability to hire, buy new equipment or expand. "The threat of higher taxes has put business executives in a pessimistic and cautious mood," he said.
New regulations?
New regulations on the financial industry and uncertainty surrounding the healthcare reform measures passed earlier this year also "dampens the enthusiasm for business expansion," Long said.
Trouble, over there
"Most of Western Europe, as well as the United States, have promised generous health care and pension provisions to retirees. These programs are not funded, except by current revenues. As the baby boom generation retires around the world, the smaller work force that remains will have to support them," Long said. This strain on government revenue — which recently played out in Greece — could trigger a new wave of panic over government defaults.
The BP effect
"The oil spill cannot be forgotten," Long said. The Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama "will feel the direct impact as oil workers are sent to the unemployment line" and tourism in the region takes a hit. If the disaster widens and regulations tighten on the oil industry, there could be an impact on the national economy.
Balancing the state budget
"Many states have chosen to balance their budget shortfalls by raising business taxes," Long said. "A significant increase in business taxes almost always has an adverse impact on the economy where the tax is levied."
Terrorism
Will we really ever be rid of it? "There is the ever-present fear of another terrorist attack," Long said. "Depending on the shape and form of this attack, it could result in a huge wave of fear that would shut down part of the economy. If the attack is serious enough, it could throw us into a recession by itself."
---
As depressing as that list is, remember that it's not all doom and gloom. Long is saying that one of these factors on its own isn't enough to take the economy back into recession. But several of these factors, worsening at the same time, could.
"If we were to get hit with several of these problems at the same time, it would make the situation even worse," Long said. "At this time the economy is sailing into a lot of headwind. However, with the strong numbers we are now reporting, it appears that we may very well be able to buck the tide."
Or, are we headed for another period of contraction, the so-called double-dip?
Well, according to Grand Valley State University economist Brian Long, the answer is still up in the air.
"Most everyone agrees that our current recovery is still somewhat fragile, and that it would not take very much to push us back into a recession," Long wrote today in a paper released with his monthly survey of West Michigan's industrial economy.
Long said if several of the 10 factors he identifies below were to converge, there would be a good chance of a new recession gripping the country.
"There is a possibility that several negative factors could converge to cause trouble," he said. "Hence, there is still about a 1-in-3 chance that our current recovery could be stopped. With each passing month of good statistics, these odds decline."
Below are Long's 10 factors that could cause a double-dip recession:
It's all in your mind
"First and foremost, the biggest cause for a double dip, if it occurs, may be that we have talked ourselves into it," Long said. "Given that all spending at both the consumer and industrial level is somewhat psychological, and with enough pessimism, it is possible to talk our way back into a recession."
Consumers lack confidence
Long says the major consumer confidence indexes remain low as many people still haven't seen full recovery of their 401(k) plans and home values. "It may take years before home prices return to their 2006 valuations. Many people who took out second mortgages and home equity loans just a few years ago are now seeing the error of their ways, and have been forced to reduced their spending."
Show me the jobs
It may take about four or five years for the nation's unemployment rate, currently around 10 percent, to return to the 5 percent range, Long said. "In every post-war recession up until now, the unemployed eventually found new employment within a matter of a few months, especially in the industrial sector." But that's definitely not the case today. "In the case of unskilled industrial jobs in 2010 — they are simply gone, never to return."
What's your home worth?
The housing market is going to be screwed up for some time, Long said. "Even though there is considerable evidence that home prices have now stabilized, it may take as many as 20 or 30 years before home prices return to their 2005 levels in many parts of the country," Long said. That affects construction workers, banks and borrowers.
As certain as death
Long said he's not sure what impact "the expiration of the tax cuts at the end of this year" will have on companies' ability to hire, buy new equipment or expand. "The threat of higher taxes has put business executives in a pessimistic and cautious mood," he said.
New regulations?
New regulations on the financial industry and uncertainty surrounding the healthcare reform measures passed earlier this year also "dampens the enthusiasm for business expansion," Long said.
Trouble, over there
"Most of Western Europe, as well as the United States, have promised generous health care and pension provisions to retirees. These programs are not funded, except by current revenues. As the baby boom generation retires around the world, the smaller work force that remains will have to support them," Long said. This strain on government revenue — which recently played out in Greece — could trigger a new wave of panic over government defaults.
The BP effect
"The oil spill cannot be forgotten," Long said. The Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama "will feel the direct impact as oil workers are sent to the unemployment line" and tourism in the region takes a hit. If the disaster widens and regulations tighten on the oil industry, there could be an impact on the national economy.
Balancing the state budget
"Many states have chosen to balance their budget shortfalls by raising business taxes," Long said. "A significant increase in business taxes almost always has an adverse impact on the economy where the tax is levied."
Terrorism
Will we really ever be rid of it? "There is the ever-present fear of another terrorist attack," Long said. "Depending on the shape and form of this attack, it could result in a huge wave of fear that would shut down part of the economy. If the attack is serious enough, it could throw us into a recession by itself."
---
As depressing as that list is, remember that it's not all doom and gloom. Long is saying that one of these factors on its own isn't enough to take the economy back into recession. But several of these factors, worsening at the same time, could.
"If we were to get hit with several of these problems at the same time, it would make the situation even worse," Long said. "At this time the economy is sailing into a lot of headwind. However, with the strong numbers we are now reporting, it appears that we may very well be able to buck the tide."
01 July 2010
Turn Out the Lights
Associated Press
In two years, U.S. consumers will get a rude shock when the federal government's ban on traditional incandescent light bulbs goes into effect. But industrial communities in the Midwest and elsewhere are already feeling pain as light-bulb manufacturer General Electric shuts down plants and moves jobs to China in preparation for production of Washington's preferred alternative: expensive compact fluorescent bulbs.
The shutdowns are happening in industrial areas already hammered by the Great Recession. General Electric shut down its Niles, Ohio light bulb plant in April, throwing 110 union laborers out of work. Two similar plants in Lexington, Kentucky (union) and Winchester, Virginia (non-union) are also slated to close this year at a combined cost of over 300 jobs.
"Government did us in," Winchester worker Dwayne Madigan told The Washington Examiner. He made bulbs that became a symbol of the global warming crisis -- a crisis that has been exposed as a fraud after a year of Climategate and a decade of flat temperatures. But the regulations march on, leaving jobs in their wake.
"Market decline for incandescent types of bulbs has accelerated with governments around the world setting new standards for efficiency," said Roy Wilson, general manager of GE's North America Lighting Manufacturing. GE lobbied for the bulb ban and will ship jobs offshore to make new compact fluorescents
Washington Democrats have long argued that green is the color of new jobs. In fact, green is red as low cost Red China will be the beneficiary of the new laws.
The federal mandate at issue was passed as part of the 2007 energy bill requiring all bulbs - beginning in 2012 - to meet high efficiency standards. Rather than create jobs, the mandate has accelerated GE's plans to shutter older factories and move them offshore even as industrial America struggles to emerge from recession. In Ohio, the unemployment rate is an above-national-average 11 percent.
For the law's supporters, the clear connection between green mandates and exported jobs is a problem.
In Niles, Ohio, a spokeswoman for Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat, says the congressman supports the regulations even though they have cost local jobs. She says Ryan supports "efficiency and green measures that encourage sustainability" that will eventually bring new jobs. She sites some new windmill startups in the area, but they are -- like other green technologies -- entirely dependent on government subsidies.
The GE plant made a popular consumer product with a sustainable, profitable business model. Until the government outlawed it.
The alliance of Big Government and Big Industry sending jobs to China is not lost on workers at the Winchester plant. Why did GE, founded by Thomas Edison, support a bill that killed the traditional bulb? It burnishes the company's "green" image ("eco-magination" is GE's initiativve) but it also allows them to charge more for bulbs, save on labor, and take advantage of China's lower regulatory burdens given the problem of fluorescents decidedly un-green use of mercury. The Times of London repots that "large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent light bulbs."
The lost jobs are more evidence that Democrats have betrayed their core labor constituency. "I live paycheck to paycheck," one soon-to-be-jobless Winchester employee told The Examiner.
These workers are victims of the Green Revolution - a revolution their employer and their government are forcing into American homes.
The shutdowns are happening in industrial areas already hammered by the Great Recession. General Electric shut down its Niles, Ohio light bulb plant in April, throwing 110 union laborers out of work. Two similar plants in Lexington, Kentucky (union) and Winchester, Virginia (non-union) are also slated to close this year at a combined cost of over 300 jobs.
"Government did us in," Winchester worker Dwayne Madigan told The Washington Examiner. He made bulbs that became a symbol of the global warming crisis -- a crisis that has been exposed as a fraud after a year of Climategate and a decade of flat temperatures. But the regulations march on, leaving jobs in their wake.
"Market decline for incandescent types of bulbs has accelerated with governments around the world setting new standards for efficiency," said Roy Wilson, general manager of GE's North America Lighting Manufacturing. GE lobbied for the bulb ban and will ship jobs offshore to make new compact fluorescents
Washington Democrats have long argued that green is the color of new jobs. In fact, green is red as low cost Red China will be the beneficiary of the new laws.
The federal mandate at issue was passed as part of the 2007 energy bill requiring all bulbs - beginning in 2012 - to meet high efficiency standards. Rather than create jobs, the mandate has accelerated GE's plans to shutter older factories and move them offshore even as industrial America struggles to emerge from recession. In Ohio, the unemployment rate is an above-national-average 11 percent.
For the law's supporters, the clear connection between green mandates and exported jobs is a problem.
In Niles, Ohio, a spokeswoman for Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat, says the congressman supports the regulations even though they have cost local jobs. She says Ryan supports "efficiency and green measures that encourage sustainability" that will eventually bring new jobs. She sites some new windmill startups in the area, but they are -- like other green technologies -- entirely dependent on government subsidies.
The GE plant made a popular consumer product with a sustainable, profitable business model. Until the government outlawed it.
The alliance of Big Government and Big Industry sending jobs to China is not lost on workers at the Winchester plant. Why did GE, founded by Thomas Edison, support a bill that killed the traditional bulb? It burnishes the company's "green" image ("eco-magination" is GE's initiativve) but it also allows them to charge more for bulbs, save on labor, and take advantage of China's lower regulatory burdens given the problem of fluorescents decidedly un-green use of mercury. The Times of London repots that "large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent light bulbs."
The lost jobs are more evidence that Democrats have betrayed their core labor constituency. "I live paycheck to paycheck," one soon-to-be-jobless Winchester employee told The Examiner.
These workers are victims of the Green Revolution - a revolution their employer and their government are forcing into American homes.
Henry Payne is editor of The Michigan View
29 June 2010
House Fails to Pass Jobs Bill, Unemployment Extension
Reuters
Republicans in the House of Representatives on Tuesday blocked a Democratic effort to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed.
Democrats brought up the measure under special rules that require a two-thirds majority for passage. But they failed to win sufficient support from Republicans, who expressed concern about the measure's $33 billion cost to the federal treasury.
The bill would help as many as 1.7 million people whose unemployment insurance benefits have run out. It would extend an emergency unemployment compensation program through November 30.
Democrats said the spending was justified to help the unemployed pay their bills and to boost the economy.
"When you provide unemployment insurance to people, they spend it," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin said. "If Republicans are worried about growth and consumer demand, they should work to put money in the pockets of people who are desperate, who are out of work, who are looking for work."
The U.S. unemployment rate, currently 9.7 percent, has remained stubbornly high even as the economy has begun to recover from deep recession sparked by the financial crisis.
The government is due on Friday to report the jobless rate for June. Analysts are expecting a slight increase due to temporary U.S. government census workers being laid off.
But Republicans said the $33 billion price tag was too much to add to an already bloated federal deficit.
"Look around the world. Countries are sinking in debt," said Representative Dave Camp, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, adding that "this reckless spending cannot go on forever."
The $1.4 trillion deficit and $13 trillion debt are becoming issues in the run-up to the November U.S. congressional elections in which Republicans hope to make substantial gains against the Democrats, who control Congress.
The extension of jobless aid for the long-term unemployed has run into solid Republican opposition in the Senate as well. A measure was attached to a bill that would extend popular business tax breaks, which stalled last week over Republican concerns about deficit spending.
Democrats brought up the measure under special rules that require a two-thirds majority for passage. But they failed to win sufficient support from Republicans, who expressed concern about the measure's $33 billion cost to the federal treasury.
The bill would help as many as 1.7 million people whose unemployment insurance benefits have run out. It would extend an emergency unemployment compensation program through November 30.
Democrats said the spending was justified to help the unemployed pay their bills and to boost the economy.
"When you provide unemployment insurance to people, they spend it," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin said. "If Republicans are worried about growth and consumer demand, they should work to put money in the pockets of people who are desperate, who are out of work, who are looking for work."
The U.S. unemployment rate, currently 9.7 percent, has remained stubbornly high even as the economy has begun to recover from deep recession sparked by the financial crisis.
The government is due on Friday to report the jobless rate for June. Analysts are expecting a slight increase due to temporary U.S. government census workers being laid off.
But Republicans said the $33 billion price tag was too much to add to an already bloated federal deficit.
"Look around the world. Countries are sinking in debt," said Representative Dave Camp, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, adding that "this reckless spending cannot go on forever."
The $1.4 trillion deficit and $13 trillion debt are becoming issues in the run-up to the November U.S. congressional elections in which Republicans hope to make substantial gains against the Democrats, who control Congress.
The extension of jobless aid for the long-term unemployed has run into solid Republican opposition in the Senate as well. A measure was attached to a bill that would extend popular business tax breaks, which stalled last week over Republican concerns about deficit spending.
20 June 2010
Unemployment Rate for May: Down in 37 States, Up in 6
USA Today
A majority of states saw their unemployment rates drop in May. But the widespread declines were mainly because people gave up looking for work and were no longer counted.
The unemployment rate fell in 37 states and the District of Columbia, the Labor Department said Friday. Six states had increases and seven experienced no change.
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia saw a net increase in jobs. But that reflected national data showing a huge gain because of government hiring of temporary census workers.
Nevada now has the highest jobless rate in the country, marking the first time in more than four years that Michigan did not hold that distinction. Nevada's rate climbed to 14%. Michigan's fell to 13.6%.
Nationally, the unemployment rate dipped to 9.7% in May from 9.9% in April. But the drop was largely because hundreds of thousands of jobless people stopped searching for work.
A total of 431,000 new jobs were added across the country in May, the biggest gain in a decade. Still, the surge came from 411,000 temporary census jobs. Private-sector job growth slowed significantly.
Big states led all others in job growth. Texas saw a net gain of 43,600 jobs, California was up 28,300 and New York rose by 21,000.
Nevada's jobless rate rose from 13.7% in April. That state has been hurt by the collapse in housing and a downturn in tourism.
"Tourism is always one of the areas hardest hit during a recession," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York.
Unemployment in Michigan, a state hurt by the troubles in the auto industry, fell from 14% in April. Michigan had had the highest monthly unemployment rate in the country since April 2006.
Wyss said the new report did not show any major changes overall in state trends.
"In general, the band of states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains are doing relatively well while the worst hit states remain the housing bubble states and manufacturing states around the Great Lakes," he said.
North Dakota continued to have the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 3.6%. It was followed by South Dakota (4.6 percent) and Nebraska (4.9 percent).
By region, the West reported the highest regional jobless rate at 10.9%, unchanged from April. The Northeast had the lowest rate at 8.9%, also the same as the previous month.
Unemployment in the South stood at 9.4% in May, down from 9.6% in April. The jobless rate in the Midwest was 9.7%, an improvement from 10% in April.
The unemployment rate fell in 37 states and the District of Columbia, the Labor Department said Friday. Six states had increases and seven experienced no change.
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia saw a net increase in jobs. But that reflected national data showing a huge gain because of government hiring of temporary census workers.
Nevada now has the highest jobless rate in the country, marking the first time in more than four years that Michigan did not hold that distinction. Nevada's rate climbed to 14%. Michigan's fell to 13.6%.
Nationally, the unemployment rate dipped to 9.7% in May from 9.9% in April. But the drop was largely because hundreds of thousands of jobless people stopped searching for work.
A total of 431,000 new jobs were added across the country in May, the biggest gain in a decade. Still, the surge came from 411,000 temporary census jobs. Private-sector job growth slowed significantly.
Big states led all others in job growth. Texas saw a net gain of 43,600 jobs, California was up 28,300 and New York rose by 21,000.
Nevada's jobless rate rose from 13.7% in April. That state has been hurt by the collapse in housing and a downturn in tourism.
"Tourism is always one of the areas hardest hit during a recession," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York.
Unemployment in Michigan, a state hurt by the troubles in the auto industry, fell from 14% in April. Michigan had had the highest monthly unemployment rate in the country since April 2006.
Wyss said the new report did not show any major changes overall in state trends.
"In general, the band of states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains are doing relatively well while the worst hit states remain the housing bubble states and manufacturing states around the Great Lakes," he said.
North Dakota continued to have the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 3.6%. It was followed by South Dakota (4.6 percent) and Nebraska (4.9 percent).
By region, the West reported the highest regional jobless rate at 10.9%, unchanged from April. The Northeast had the lowest rate at 8.9%, also the same as the previous month.
Unemployment in the South stood at 9.4% in May, down from 9.6% in April. The jobless rate in the Midwest was 9.7%, an improvement from 10% in April.
04 June 2010
Auto Industry may see Labor Shortage
USA Today
While 228,000 auto jobs have been shed in the past two years, the industry is poised to add about 15,000 this year and could need up to 100,000 new workers a year from 2011 through 2013 as the recession recovery continues, says David Cole, chairman of the non-profit organization that looks at trends related to the auto industry and society.
The new jobs won't necessarily be filled by those displaced workers. Automakers need workers with more and different skills than in the past on the factory floor, Cole says. Among priorities: computer skills and the ability to work with less supervision than their predecessors. That likely means education beyond high school.
"The one thing that is very clear is that production workers need a two-year community college degree or the equivalent," he says. "The technology is quite sophisticated and changing rapidly."
He predicts a shortage as early as next year.
Experts have predicted for about five years that a labor shortage eventually would come for the auto industry simply due to the aging population. Advanced Technology Services and ACNielsen predicted in 2005 that changing demographics alone could leave the industry short of skilled autoworkers by the middle of this decade.
Cole says that problem exists, too, and it may arrive sooner than expected, since buyout offers from automakers in recent years accelerated retirement by many older workers. Meanwhile, an industry that shrank for more than a decade has not been adding great numbers of younger workers.
At least for now, thanks to the economy, there are plenty of applicants for any new jobs.
When Kia began hiring for more than 1,000 jobs at its just-opened plant in West Point, Ga., it got more than 44,000 applications.
Chrysler announced last month it would add 1,100 jobs this summer for a second shift at the Detroit plant starting to build its new 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. But it's not taking applications because it has enough already to fill the spots.
Sophia Koropeckyj, managing director for Moody's Economy.com, says, however, that lots of applications don't mean a surplus of applicants with skills now needed for state-of-the-art auto plants.
"It's not contradictory at all," she says. "(Automakers) are having a hard time filling all those positions. That really is the scenario."
03 May 2010
Oh! Canada Tries To Corner American Bridge Tycoon
Forbes
New shots fired in the war with Manuel ''Matty'' Moroun.
How much do Canadians hate Manuel "Matty" Moroun, the billionaire owner of the Ambassador Bridge connecting Michigan and Ontario?
So much so that Canada is offering to put up Michigan's share of the construction costs for a new $2.2 billion public bridge that would compete with Moroun's private crossing.
Michigan's Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm is delighted by the $550 million offer, saying it would create 10,000 construction jobs for her state, which is grappling with a $1.5 billion budget deficit. Moroun is outraged, claiming Canada is trying to put an Arab-American citizen out of business. He plans to sue Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The acrimony between Moroun and bridge opponents on both sides of the border has been going on for years. His critics say Moroun is a monopolist who ought to be subjected to government oversight. Moroun says his privately held Detroit International Bridge Co. is better at running the border crossing than any government entity.
The Ambassador, a four-lane, two-mile span connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, over the Detroit River is a critical juncture between the U.S. and its largest trading partner. An estimated 40% of all commerce between the two countries passes over the bridge. But it's 81 years old and in need of replacement.
Moroun wants to build a $1 billion twin span adjacent to his current bridge, then shut down the Ambassador for maintenance and reopen it only to relieve congestion. He'd issue private activity bonds to pay for the construction, which would be repaid with toll revenues.
So much so that Canada is offering to put up Michigan's share of the construction costs for a new $2.2 billion public bridge that would compete with Moroun's private crossing.
Michigan's Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm is delighted by the $550 million offer, saying it would create 10,000 construction jobs for her state, which is grappling with a $1.5 billion budget deficit. Moroun is outraged, claiming Canada is trying to put an Arab-American citizen out of business. He plans to sue Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The acrimony between Moroun and bridge opponents on both sides of the border has been going on for years. His critics say Moroun is a monopolist who ought to be subjected to government oversight. Moroun says his privately held Detroit International Bridge Co. is better at running the border crossing than any government entity.
The Ambassador, a four-lane, two-mile span connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, over the Detroit River is a critical juncture between the U.S. and its largest trading partner. An estimated 40% of all commerce between the two countries passes over the bridge. But it's 81 years old and in need of replacement.
Moroun wants to build a $1 billion twin span adjacent to his current bridge, then shut down the Ambassador for maintenance and reopen it only to relieve congestion. He'd issue private activity bonds to pay for the construction, which would be repaid with toll revenues.
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