Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I just heard driving to work that MI gained 39,000 jobs in October, dropping (!) the unemployment rate to 51.1%. So, yay us, right?
This came a few days after a report that an ad agency that had had the Chrysler account since 1919 was going under, costing the state 450 jobs, because the auto company did not renew its contract with them, and Chrysler was their only account.
The latter got me thinking. It just seems like phenomenally bad planning for any ad agency to have only one account, no matter how big, especially when that account is with a company that's circling the drain. It also made me wonder how even Chrysler would need 450 people to run its ad campaigns. Sometimes, based on information like this, I just wonder how many of the jobs we're losing are redundant anyway. I have hopes that MI will come out of its decade of financial crisis a lot leaner and meaner.
I think that the domestic auto industry has been living like a pig at the trough for far too long and it finally caught up with them. Do everything in excess, don't worry about the bottom line, "hey...we're one of the Big Three. People HAVE to buy our products." This mentality seems to have peaked in the 1970's, and that also happens to be the decade in which foreign auto makers first started making inroads into the U.S. automobile market, which should have been a wake up call for the Big Three and their gluttonous unions, but...alas. Now, we are painfully feeling the result of decades of overindulgance and high living. Once things get pared down and GM and Chrysler get serious about making vehicles that the public actually wants to buy, it will all even out and jobs will come back. Maybe not the "$30/hr. full bennies, call in sick 20 days a year and still keep your job" jobs, because now that the entire U.S. taxpaying population has a financial stake in two of the Big Three companies, they are going to be forced to be more accountable for their spending and the quality of their products. It seems to me that the shakedown of the domestic auto industry, while extremely painful for states like Michigan and Ohio, will ultimately end up being a good thing.
It was just in our local paper yesterday that the Chrysler engine plant in Dundee, here in Monroe Co. and only a stone's throw from Detroit, will be adding hundreds of new jobs, as they have been selected to produce all of the engines for the new, small, fuel-efficient cars that Chrysler/Fiat will be producing in the next few years. This plant was voted most productive engine plant in North America for at least the past two years. Way to go, Dundee!!
BTW, kudos to Ford Motor Co. for not asking for a government bailout and for having the foresight to produce an amazing car (the Fusion) that outranks both the Toyota and Honda models in its category in all areas. My next car will be a Ford, because I admire a company that was proactive and stood on its own two feet when faced with increasing foreign competition. However, I wish both GM and Chrysler every good thing in the future.
Michigan can only come out leaner and meaner if it starts cutting back the government programs but many people seem to be drifting into a permanantly unemployed category and will expect extension after extension of their government handouts. To me the problem will be that the people who insist on working for a living will pack up and leave and take their work ethic and job skills with them.
I just heard driving to work that MI gained 39,000 jobs in October, dropping (!) the unemployment rate to 51.1%. So, yay us, right?
This came a few days after a report that an ad agency that had had the Chrysler account since 1919 was going under, costing the state 450 jobs, because the auto company did not renew its contract with them, and Chrysler was their only account.
The latter got me thinking. It just seems like phenomenally bad planning for any ad agency to have only one account, no matter how big, especially when that account is with a company that's circling the drain. It also made me wonder how even Chrysler would need 450 people to run its ad campaigns. Sometimes, based on information like this, I just wonder how many of the jobs we're losing are redundant anyway. I have hopes that MI will come out of its decade of financial crisis a lot leaner and meaner.
Discuss?
Just a typo, I make them all the time, but did you mean to say "15.1%"? Just don't want any more Michigan bashers to see it and go around telling people that Michigan now has an unemployment rate of over 50%, lol.
BTW, meant to mention in my pp--that ad agency deserved to go under if Chrysler was their one and only client. Talk about poor management at the top! Unfortunately, those other 400+ employees don't deserve to lose their jobs because the company brass made stupid decisions, but isn't that generally how it goes?
This map shows where a supposed "recovery" is happening, and according to moody's economy.com the only metro in Michigan recovering currently is Kalamazoo. You can click on a state to receive more detailed info, and then on a city for even more.
I worked for a Tier 1/2 supplier for many years, and I had many friends that worked in various roles in the auto industry whether for the Big Three directly or something like an ad agency. It was insane to see the corporate bloat! One of my friends temped for GM and they had so many people wandering around with basically nothing to do all day except wait for someone to want a photocopy. A lot of the suppliers and services like ad agencies mimicked this corporate strategy, and since they were just as stupid they are now just as bankrupt. It is a shame for the people who just want to make an honest living at the bottom of the pile, but the executives should have learned how to make their own copies a long time ago.
(As an aside, the supplier I worked for preferred to mimic Toyota, and they were so lean that they told us not to get up from our desks unless we had accumulated several tasks to complete while standing, i.e. go to the bathroom, make a copy, and get a cup of coffee. I kept the memos, they still make me glad to be out of there after all these years! That said, they're still in business.)
I've been impressed by Ford's handling of the economic crisis too, I must say. After years of loyalty to Japanese quality (even though it gets my car keyed in certain towns), my next car may be a Ford. I like the one where they show a virtual tree on your dashboard based on how "green" your driving habits are - I know it's a silly gee-whiz feature but I WANT IT!
This came a few days after a report that an ad agency that had had the Chrysler account since 1919 was going under, costing the state 450 jobs, because the auto company did not renew its contract with them, and Chrysler was their only account.
The latter got me thinking. It just seems like phenomenally bad planning for any ad agency to have only one account, no matter how big, especially when that account is with a company that's circling the drain. Discuss?
Its called putting all your eggs in one basket,which has been the mantra for a lot of michigan companies,and hence,you'll get this kind of problem.
This map shows where a supposed "recovery" is happening, and according to moody's economy.com the only metro in Michigan recovering currently is Kalamazoo. You can click on a state to receive more detailed info, and then on a city for even more.
Another article outlining some true facts about our future, although I don't agree with the entire piece.
I have always been a nerd for economics and demographics, even in high school. Hence, I remember shortly after the devastating recession of the early 80’s. That it was predicted by demographers that Michigan’s population would be about 8 million by the year 2000. They were extrapolating from the job and population loss that had occurred in the first half of the 80’s. Needless to say, the State’s population breached 10 million in about 2001, a mere 2 million above the predictions about the state’s future that were being made in the 80’s after the hit to the auto industry. Extrapolation is the laziest method of prediction and often the least accurate. Hence, I don’t buy these predictions about Michigan at all.
Personally, I think people need to scrap their focus on Michigan and direct their focus to the Nation as a whole. Yes, it’s true that Michigan will not return to the hay day of its living standards…..but that is equally true for the nation. The question, therefore, is the RELATIVE state of Michigan, as compared to other states, in a Nation which is manifesting a declining standard of living. Certainly if one uses the lazy and easy method of extrapolation, then the fact that Michigan has done much worse than others means that it will continue to do so. However, when one attempts to intelligently look at changes taking place, such as issues with fresh water, such as the fact that there are far fewer less auto jobs to lose (meaning that the state is now much more diversified), our relative performance will likely improve considerably, several years down the line.
The only way Michigan can come back strong in absolute metrics is if the nation comes back strong in absolute metrics, which is not going to happen. Actually, I believe, the opposite will happen for the nation. There is no “RECOVERY” manifesting as suggested. There has simply been an increased credit limit and debt. We are measuring the wrong thing. We should not be measuring GROWTH that results from BORROWING based consumption, but rather, we should only be measuring growth that results EARNINGS based consumption. Borrowing based consumption and growth simply increases the present at the cost of reducing the future. Eventually what is borrowed will have to be paid for and when that time comes the payment will prevent new consumption, which will reduce growth and GDP.
The only way progress can truly be measured is when the Benefit is reconciled with its cost. What we have now is government stimulus which provided current benefits that have not yet been offset by its cost and politicians and pundits are selling this as GROWTH. It’s NOT. There are 7 million people unemployed. The median or average work week is now 33 hours. The drop in hours worked is equivalent to 3 million jobs lost. People are being furloughed, forced to work part-time and other realities that aggregated nationally to a reduced average work week. The jobs simply are NOT there. For those who think people will leave the state because they are getting tired of paying for people who do not want to work…..I ask…..where are you going to go? You are going to run into the same situation everywhere. Moreover, it you cut off unemployment benefits, these people will have no money to spend, no money to pay bills and consequently many other sectors of the economy will be dragged down and it may eventually trickle up to mean a job loss for those who feel smug and secure that it is their “work ethic” and choices that is keeping them employed.
Michigan can only come out leaner and meaner if it starts cutting back the government programs but many people seem to be drifting into a permanantly unemployed category and will expect extension after extension of their government handouts. To me the problem will be that the people who insist on working for a living will pack up and leave and take their work ethic and job skills with them.
I disagree with that. I think these people living on unemployment extensions would jump at the chance to work! But many can't afford to leave at this point.
I do think people will have to let go of the hope that they can get paid for doing nothing. That was always BS. I still know some people getting paid for that, and yes, some of them are in state and county jobs, but they are (happily) being hunted to extinction.
Just a typo, I make them all the time, but did you mean to say "15.1%"? Just don't want any more Michigan bashers to see it and go around telling people that Michigan now has an unemployment rate of over 50%, lol.
BTW, meant to mention in my pp--that ad agency deserved to go under if Chrysler was their one and only client. Talk about poor management at the top! Unfortunately, those other 400+ employees don't deserve to lose their jobs because the company brass made stupid decisions, but isn't that generally how it goes?
Wow. Sorry, folks, I never told you I was smart!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
