Obama is right: Rebounding automakers adding jobs

USA TODAY
By Billy Weeks, AP
Jan 25, 2012
After rounds of plant closures as the economy headed into recession — and some automakers headed into bankruptcy court — a resurgent auto industry is helping lead the way out with a hiring surge of an estimated 60,000 jobs this year.
President Obama underscored the point Tuesday night in his State of the Union address, pointing to the auto industry as an example of a U.S. factory-floor rebound.
"Tonight, the American auto industry is back," Obama declared, noting that General Motors is again the world's largest automaker.
Michelle Obama hosted a General Motors plant manager from Detroit in her box for the address.
Total jobs at all U.S. auto plants and parts factories will rise 10% to about 650,000 this year, says the Center for Automotive Research, and hit 756,800 by 2015. That's up from about 550,000 in the depths of the recent recession, but still well below more than a million a decade ago.
"It's a reflection of a stronger economy and that we're building products that customers want and value," says Kristin Dziczek, director of the center's labor and industry group.
The job surge reflects better U.S. auto sales. But for the domestic makers, it also shows how UAW concessions have helped make Detroit automakers more competitive. With new hires getting pay that will rise to about $19 per hour plus benefits under the four-year contract negotiated last year, GM's average compensation is now close to Toyota's in the U.S., the center says.
Meanwhile, foreign makers such as Kia, Hyundai, Toyota and Volkswagen have added thousands of U.S. jobs for new or expanded plants. "The (jobs) graph is going in the right direction," says Randy Jackson, a vice president at Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia.
Examples of auto job growth:

• Ford Motor. About 5,500 workers are being added this year at plants in Wayne, Mich., Louisville and Chicago.
• General Motors. GM announced last year a series of new jobs totaling more than 7,000, with many to come this year, such as at the revived Spring Hill, Tenn., assembly plant.
• Chrysler Group. New shifts of 1,100 each are being added next year at plants in Detroit and Toledo, Ohio.
• Nissan. About 1,200 jobs will be added this spring to a truck line and 1,300 for electric cars in Tennessee and 150, mostly engineers, in Michigan.
• BMW. It's adding 300 jobs this year in Spartanburg, S.C.
• Daimler truck. The German maker's truck unit will add 1,100 jobs this year in Cleveland.
  
  

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