As the US market improves more jobs are being created especially in Detroit, Michigan. Mayfair Group continues
to update you with latest market news.
Birmingham-- As the VIPs of the Detroit Economic Club sat down to their luncheon meeting Friday, the
Rev. Rodney Quainton of First United Methodist Church ended his invocation by citing one of America's
great spiritual leaders. "As Yogi Berra said," the " 'The future ain't what it used to be.' Rev. Quainton
intoned, "
It was an apt sentiment for a day that featured two rare pieces of economic good news for the state, a
pair of announcements that underscore how far Michigan has fallen and how far it has to go.
While the state hung on to part of its diminished old economy with Friday's announcement that General
Motors Corp. will save 1,400 jobs by building its next small car in Orion Township, Michigan also
grabbed a small piece of a diversified future with the confirmation that General Electric will open a hightech
facility in Van Buren Township.
The new center will add nearly 1,200 high-paying jobs -- focused on developing advanced manufacturing
technology as well as software -- to Michigan's struggling economy, and serve as GE's information
technology training hub. That will include work to support GE's efforts in renewable energy, which
supports Gov. Jennifer Granholm's efforts to diversify Michigan's economy with an emphasis on hightech
manufacturing in the alternative energy field.
Most of the jobs will be high-paying -- about $100,000 a year -- and will be new jobs created in
Michigan.
"We believe we can tap into some of the great labor resources that already exist in the state," GE CEO
Jeff Immelt said at a press conference before his speech to the Detroit Economic Club. He added that
hiring will start later this year and that GE will post a Web site as early as next week to accept
applications.
The 1,200 GE jobs amount to less than 1 percent of the 121,000 manufacturing jobs the state has lost
just this year, but still provide a glimmer of hope in the efforts to recreate the state economy.
"We clearly have a long path against us," Granholm said after the announcement Friday. "For a hundred
years, we have been an automotive economy and we clearly need to diversify. This summer is going to
be tough. But if we are shrewd and strategic and make key investments, we will emerge leaner, meaner,
stronger and greener."
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, called Friday's dual announcements "another step forward in Michigan's
comeback."
"Psychology is so important here," Levin said. "I don't think I can emphasize enough how important it is
that we have self-confidence, that we look at the future optimistically. When we do that we're going to
be OK. If we are down on ourselves and our future, that's going to be more of a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Besides its own staff jobs, the GE facility will attract suppliers and support firms, and spur construction
work on a new $100 million research lab in addition to the existing office space GE will take at Visteon
Village in Van Buren Township.
GE will locate right in the middle of the Aerotropolis, a zone between Willow Run and Detroit Metro
Airport that local governments are trying to bill as prime real estate for manufacturing, e-commerce and
logistics firms. By landing GE for the site that bills itself on both location and government cooperation, a
message has been sent to suppliers and other large corporations alike, Wayne County Executive Robert
Ficano said Friday.
"It's sort of what Hewlett-Packard did for Silicon Valley," Ficano said "That can be an anchor stone to
new development."
GE's Immelt agreed that more new jobs are likely to be created.
"Companies like GE never travel alone," Immelt said. "We tend to bring suppliers and other people with
us. At the end of the day, it could equal another couple of thousand jobs."
The state will provide tax incentives totaling $74 million years, Granholm said, with the project expected
to produce during 12 million in state tax revenue in that time. $146
Both Immelt and the governor praised Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, for her role as a matchmaker
in deal.
"I am thrilled that after saying to so many businesses that come though my office in Washington that
you should be in Michigan, that Jeff was smart enough to take me up on it," Stabenow said.
Stabenow said the idea came up at a February meeting in New York after the stimulus bill was passed,
when she met with Immelt, a lifelong Republican who serves on President Obama's economic recovery
panel.
" and she "I said, 'Jeff you really need to be in Michigan,' described the state's high quality of life, low
cost of living and concentration of skilled engineers, not knowing that GE was weighing where to put the
new technology facility.
"It was almost like lights went off in his head," Stabenow said. "He turned to one of his guys and said,
'We really ought to look at Michigan for this project.' It was just the right moment."
And for the state clinging to its past and grappling with its future, not a moment too soon.
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