Could the Detroit Three be mobility industry minnows?
The New York Times in an article entitled Jim Farley tries to reinvent Ford and catch up to Elon Musk and Tesla writes: Yet Wall Street still thinks that Tesla, which is worth more than $1 trillion, will dominate the industry and that companies like Ford, worth $62 billion, and G.M., $58 billion, will become […]
44 percent of Metro Detroit jobs pay middle class wages
Important new metro Detroit educational attainment report from the Detroit Regional Chamber entitled 2022 State of Talent. Worth checking out. The report portrays a region that continues to be a laggard in post-secondary attainment. And the negative impact that has on household well being and the region’s overall prosperity. The Chamber writes: The data in […]
Big cities are where today’s college students want to live
Conventional wisdom has it that big cities are dead. This time the cause of their predicted demise is the pandemic. It is widely believed that since you can now work from home combined with a long-lasting fear of crowded places that big cities are toast. There is one big problem with this theory. When asked […]
Why Intel’s chip plant is going to metro Columbus
Recently Intel announced they are going to invest an initial $20 billion in a new chip fabrication plant in metro Columbus Ohio. Initial because Intel’s CEO Pat Gelsinger indicated that Columbus could become “the largest semiconductor manufacturing location on the planet.” With a total investment of $100 billion in eight fabrication plants. The first plant […]
Michigan chambers of commerce support Earned Income Tax Credit expansion
A big expansion of Michigan’s Earned Income Tax Credit benefits both workers and business. Twelve Michigan chambers of commerce agree. They lay out their case for support of a big expansion of the state’s earned income tax credit in a letter to the Governor and legislative leadership. They write: Dear Governor Whitmer and Quadrant Leaders, […]
The pandemic is shattering the dreams of high school seniors
Since the onset of the pandemic, far too many Michigan high school seniors––particularly non-affluent seniors––have had their dreams shattered. By either not enrolling in college or enrolling and then dropping out or enrolling in post-secondary education at a level below what they aspired to and were qualified for these students have had their life chances […]
Expand Michigan’s Earned Income Tax Credit now
Our analysis of the robust 2019 Michigan labor market makes clear that Michigan has a two-tier economy. Nearly six in ten Michigan payroll jobs pay less than what is required for a family of three to be middle class ($47,000). This two-tier economy is prevalent across all of Michigan and across all races and ethnicities. […]
Michigan’s lack of jobs in high-wage occupations
Terrific op ed in Crain’s Detroit Business by Glenn Stevens Jr., executive director of MICHauto and Britany Affolter-Caine, executive director of Michigan’s University Research Corridor. They write: The most successful strategy to ensure Michigan’s long-term competitiveness and economic prosperity is to increase the number of workers with college degrees and with digital skills in professions […]
The paucity of high-paid blue collar manufacturing jobs
In a 2012 post entitled Low pay driving job vacancies I posited that the reason manufacturers had a shortage of skilled trades workers was low pay, not a skills shortage. That post featured a New York Times Magazine article by Adam Davidson entitled Skills don’t pay the bills. Davidson wrote: The secret behind this skills […]
Get younger and better educated or get poorer
For years we ended our presentations with a slide that said Michigan must get younger and better educated or we will get poorer. Where younger meant a place where Michigan was retaining those who grew up here and attracting mobile young talent from any place on the planet. And better educated primarily meant increasing the […]