A Hiring Binge in Detroit?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.businessweek.com/autos/autobeat/archives/2008/04/a_hiring_binge.html

Posted by: David Kiley on April 16

Detroit has lost over 100,000 auto jobs in the last two-plus years, devastating the Michigan economy and tax rolls. But a new report by the Center for Automotive Research says a hiring binge will begin by this Fall, continuing through to the middle of the next decade.

The CAR report projects that 46,000 new auto workers will be hired in Michigan alone by 2016.”The bleeding will stop, said Kristin Dziczek, a CAR project manager.

Before you get too excited, though, there will be an economic trade-off. And the overall number of auto worker jobs will Fall when furrther buyouts and retirements are factored in. The CAR report said in Michigan alone, the number of autoworkers will drop from 129,00 today, to just 108,430 by 2016.

Just like manufacturing workers who wind up working for Walmart or call-centers lose pay and benefits in the transition, so will the new wave of auto workers. Many of the new hires will be coming in at much lower wages. That’s because the United Auto Workers Union has approved a new two-tier wage/benefit package. Those in the lower rung will make $14 an hour compared to top-tier wages of $26 an hour.