Jobs

The latest news on jobs -- or lack thereof -- throughout the Midwest region.

Key topics in this category:

RECENT POSTS

February 22, 2012 | 5:21 AM | By Niala Boodhoo

What Midwest Leaders Are Doing To Lay Out The Welcome Mat For Immigrants


Last year, Alabama enacted the country’s most restrictive laws against illegal immigration. One week later, Dayton, Ohio, set out a welcome mat for immigrants. And it’s not alone.

In the second part of our look at immigrants and the Midwest, we’ve found many local governments are trying to attract immigrants as an economic development strategy.

Tom Wahlrab from Welcome Dayton speaks to Global Detroit.

Dayton got attention from all over the world last fall when its city commission unanimously approved a plan called Welcome Dayton to make it an “immigrant-friendly city.” Since then, the town has been inundated.

“We have people calling us from South Africa that read about us in the local paper,” Tom Wahlrab, one of the plan’s architects, said recently in Detroit. “We have people from North China that want to immigrate here, they thought we could help them.”

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, Jobs, Addison, Brookings, Dayton, Global Detroit, immigration, Steve Tobocman
February 22, 2012 | 10:23 AM | By Micki Maynard

Michigan’s Primary Race Tightens As Romney Talks Right To Work

A new poll by NBC News shows Mitt Romney taking a narrow lead over Rick Santorum in the race to win Michigan’s Republican primary next Tuesday.

The NBC poll, out Wednesday, showed 37 percent of likely voters support the former Massachusetts governor, while 35 percent support the former Pennsylvania senator. To statisticians, that’s within the margin of error, meaning a statistical tie.

“Michigan is neck and neck,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the NBC survey.

That’s a big change from last week, when Santorum led Romney in two Michigan polls. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Jobs, Politics, Barack Obama, Michigan, Mitt Romney, Primary, Republican, Rick Santorum, Rick Snyder, Right to Work
February 21, 2012 | 1:03 PM | By Dustin Dwyer

Chicago’s Digital Startup Boom

Built In Chicago

The non-profit group Built In Chicago analyzed data from 2011 and found that it was a big, big year for web-based startups in the city.

128 new companies launched last year, and the total amount of new capital raised by web-based companies in Chicago was up 431 percent.  A hefty chunk of that increase came from Groupon. But even excluding the coupon giant, funding of Chicago’s web startups was up 75.8 percent.

UPDATE: Maria Katris, Executive Director of Built In Chicago, estimates in an email to us that the the 128 businesses launched last year created 700-1,000 jobs. And the digital sector as a whole is responsible for 25,000 – 30,000+ jobs for the Chicago area. Built In Chicago also looks at the top 50 digital companies in the Windy City and finds that they’ve created more than 11,500 jobs.

And there are signs that Chicagoans are preparing for some long-term growth in this area. We told you last month about 1871, a new 50,000 square foot startup tech center in Chicago. And companies from other parts of the country are starting to take notice of Chicago’s tech talent, particularly in the sales and marketing world.

Katris says she expects further growth in the coming years. She tells us:

In 2011, a new startup launched every third day.  We predict you will see a new startup launching every other day in 2012, and every day in 2013.

Venture Capitalist, entrepreneur and blogger Brad Feld highlighted Chicago’s startup activity in a blog post yesterday.

Feld said what’s happening in Chicago “is a great example of what happens when entrepreneurs take a long term view to building their startup community.”

FILED UNDER: Industry, Innovation, Jobs, 1871, Brad Feld, Built In Chicago, Chicago, entrepreneur, Groupon, startup, startups, tech
February 17, 2012 | 12:31 PM | By Dustin Dwyer

Sales Of Machine Tools Are Soaring. What Does It Mean For Manufacturing In America?

Steve Kline Jr., Gardner Publications Inc.

We love a good chart here at Changing Gears, and this is one that definitely caught our attention. The chart shows the rate of change for machine tool sales in the United States.

In a general sense, machine tools represent the base of the manufacturing chain. They’re usually not on the assembly line. They’re in the local mom-and-pop tool and die shops that dot the Midwestern landscape. Machine tools make the things that hold everything else together.

In 2010, investments in these tools exploded. As you can see in the chart, sales increased at a faster rate than at any time in the last four decades, at least.

We already knew that manufacturing is on the rebound in this country. But what can we learn from this explosive growth in machine tool sales?

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Industry, Jobs, CNC, Gardner Publications, machine tools, Modern Machine Shop, offshoring, onshoring, reshoring, Steve Kline Jr., tool and die
February 15, 2012 | 5:00 AM | By Dustin Dwyer

Why More Leaders In The Midwest Are Looking To Immigrants To Rebuild Our Economy

Dustin Dwyer

Bing Goei came to the United States as a child. Now he runs a company with 60 employees and more than $5 million in annual revenue.


In many ways, the headquarters for Eastern Floral in Grand Rapids, Mich. is like a factory. It’s in an old building with brick walls. The floor is smooth, cold concrete. A noisy printer rattles off new orders.

But of course, it smells amazing in here. Designers stand at long wooden tables, primping and pruning flowers. Red tulips. White daisies. Yellow roses. And just about any other flower you can imagine.

Bing Goei, the owner, says this work is more like artistry.

“I think you have to be born with that.” he says. “I was not. I admit it.”

Goei says this with a laugh.

But he was born with something else that turned out to be its own asset. He was born with a foreign birth certificate. His parents were Chinese. He was born in Indonesia, then moved to the Netherlands. From there, they moved to Grand Rapids, like a lot of Dutch people before them. Except, they have a Chinese name.

And like many of those immigrants before him, Goei worked hard. He started in the flower business in high school. Now, Eastern Floral has seven locations, about 60 year-round employees – twice that around Valentine’s Day – and the company has over $5 million in annual revenue.

Goei says being an immigrant, and being an entrepreneur, there’s a connection there.
Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, Government, Innovation, Jobs, Bing Goei, Eastern Floral, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, Immigrant Inc., immigration, Kauffman Foundation, MEDC, Michael Finney, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Richard T. Herman
February 13, 2012 | 12:24 PM | By Dan Bobkoff

Indicted Financier Was Behind International Investment in Cleveland

A. Eddy Zai

When the financial crisis hit four years ago, it threatened an ambitious mixed-use waterfront development in Cleveland’s moribund Flats area. Developer Scott Wolstein could no longer find credit.

Then, millions flowed in from an unexpected source: a group of foreign investors using an obscure immigration program called EB-5. The government gives visas to investors who invest in the US economy and create US jobs.

EB-5 was the main incentive for the Cleveland International Fund, which sought foreign investment to revitalize Cleveland. At the helm was A. Eddy Zai, an immigrant himself, who had success convincing others to invest in the Midwest.

Now, Zai is in big trouble. Last week, a federal indictment charged Zai with 34 counts related to bank fraud, according to the Plain Dealer. He’s accused of bilking a credit union of nearly $17 million in bad loans, and contributing to its collapse. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, Jobs, A. Eddy Zai, Cleveland International Fund, eb-5, flats east bank, indictment
February 10, 2012 | 3:44 PM | By Dan Bobkoff

On 75th Anniversary of Sit-Down Strike, UAW Head Calls for New Protests

Earlier this month, Indiana became the latest state to go right-to-work. That means unions can’t force non-members to pay dues. It was a different story seventy-five years ago. The United Auto Workers was in its infancy, with little power. Then, workers at a Fisher body plant in Flint sat down on the job. After 44 days, the UAW became the official bargaining agent for auto factory workers. Many credit the protest with ushering in an era of strong unions and a better standard of living for workers.

Union workers celebrate the anniversary this week at their annual White Shirt Day. MLive reports 500 people attended the event at Flint’s UAW Local 651 Friday. UAW President Bob King used the occasion to call for new protests and action from his members. Faced with a possible spread of right-to-work legislation to states like Ohio, and what he sees as right-wing Republicans attacking workers’ rights, King said the union will soon train its members to take part in nonviolent, but possibly illegal demonstrations across the nation, according to the Detroit News. No word on whether those protests will involve sitting down on the job, like their forbearers in the 1930s.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Industry, Jobs, anniversary, Flint, Right to Work, sit-down strike, UAW
February 9, 2012 | 9:55 AM | By Micki Maynard

Mothballed GM Engine Plant Near Buffalo To See New Life

When you drive across the Great Lakes to Buffalo, you probably go through the town of Tonawanda — one of the most industrial places in our region. Now, a General Motors engine plant there that’s been closed since 2004 is getting some new life.

GM said Wednesday that it will revive Plant 4 at its Tonawanda engine complex for use as a training center and for production logistics. The move comes as GM is investing $900 million in its other three engine plants there.

The company is hoping the move eventually will lead to several hundred new jobs, according to the Buffalo News. The announcement came at the start of the Buffalo Auto Show.

Plant 4 first came to life during World War II, when it was used to assemble aircraft engines for Pratt and Whitney. Later, the 1.1 million square foot facility assembled big 3.1 liter and 3.4 liter engines, before it was shut down. Since then, it’s been used as a warehouse and for some shop work.

Under GM’s plan, the plant will be put back into use to train workers in the rest of the Tonawanda complex, and also as what’s called a “Logistical Optimization Center” or LOC. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, Industry, Jobs, Buffalo, General Motors, jobs
February 8, 2012 | 2:48 PM | By Micki Maynard

Indiana Gets A $400 Million Infusion from Toyota

Toyota said Wednesday it plans to move production of the Highlander, a mid-sized SUV, out of Japan next year and into its plant in Princeton, Ind.

It will spend $400 million to expand its operations there, and once that’s completed, the plant will supply Russia and Australia along with North America. Toyota also builds the Highlander in China for the Chinese market only, but it says Highlander will no longer be built in Japan after 2013.

The investment will add 400 new jobs at the Princeton plant, which employs 4,800 people. The factory, which is southern Indiana, builds the Highlander, Sequoia SUV and the Sienna minivan. Toyota says it plans to build about 50,000 more Highlanders a year there.

“That’s great news for this region, for our American customers, and for the U.S economy,” Yoshi Inaba, Toyota’s North American chief executive, said in a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago. Every new auto job, he said, creates three and a half “spin off” jobs to support those workers.

FILED UNDER: Industry, Jobs, Indiana, Toyota
February 6, 2012 | 11:47 AM | By Micki Maynard

Canada’s Caterpillar Loss Appears to Be Indiana’s Gain

On Friday, Caterpillar’s Progress Rail Services said it was closing its 62-year-old Electro-Motive Canada operation in London, Ontario, the subject of a union lock out since the beginning of the year. Now, it looks like some of the plant’s 475 jobs could be headed for Indiana, reports the Globe and Mail in Toronto.

Caterpillar held a jobs fair in Muncie, Ind., over the weekend, that drew thousands of applicants. Some job seekers showed up at 4 a.m., five hours before the company began letting people in the door. In all, about 3,000 people turned out, according to the Muncie Free Press.

The Muncie plant, which assembles locomotives, underwent a $50 million renovation last year and became the first new locomotive plant in the United States in years.

The New Year’s lock out of the Canadian Auto Workers union came after the CAW refused to accept deep concessions that would have cut hourly pay in half.

The move comes just as Indiana is implementing its new Right to Work law, signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels last week. The law prevents unions from charging mandatory dues, even if they represent a workforce.

In explaining the shutdown, Billy Ainsworth, the CEO of Progress Rail, said in a letter to employees that all the company’s facilities “must achieve competitive costs, quality and operating flexibility to compete and win in the global marketplace, and expectations at the London plant were no different.”

FILED UNDER: Government, Industry, Jobs, canada, Caterpillar, jobs, Right to Work