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Auto Focus

By Melissa Anderson
Vice President, IRN Inc.
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Employment in the automotive industry is on its way back up, after a 10-year slide between 1999 and 2009.

Analysis from the Center for Automotive Research projects the addition of 167,000 jobs to U.S. automotive manufacturing between 2011 and 2015. CAR sees 15 percent of these jobs being added by the Detroit Three, 80 percent occurring at supplier companies, and the remainder from the foreign-owned automakers at their U.S. facilities.

CAR’s projections make sense, given the outlook for growth in U.S. vehicle sales and production. CAR’s sales forecast calls for vehicle purchases to rise from 12.6 million in 2011 to 15.5 million by 2016, stabilizing at the 15.6 to 15.7 million unit level through 2020. IRN’s North American light duty vehicle forecast follows a similar trajectory, rising from 13.0 million units in 2011 to 15.8 million in 2016.

What the CAR report does not address is the question of how all those additional new employees will be found. In the Original Equipment Suppliers Association’s survey of automotive suppliers last November, 80 percent said they planned to add corporate engineering and technical staff, and 70 percent of those indicated that they were having trouble finding qualified, available candidates.

For skilled trades, the corresponding figures were 53 percent adding personnel and more than half — 57 percent — were having trouble. Fifty-seven percent were adding hourly production workers, and 30 percent of those were unable to find the desired number and/or caliber of candidates, so we can see that there has been a disconnect between the industry’s needs and available resources.

Many of IRN’s clients, especially in metropolitan Detroit, tell of lengthy searches, of being turned down by candidates when offers are made, of having newly-hired workers quit almost immediately, and of taxing their organizations as they are short-staffed to handle the increasing program workloads. They observe the same situation happening at their OEM customers, who are also trying to do things faster, but with fewer workers.

The problem is both a national long-term dilemma and a near-term challenge. On the national level, Emily Stover DeRocco, president of The Manufacturing Institute and former Assistant Secretary of Labor, is one of the figures leading the charge. DeRocco has a long-standing familiarity with West Michigan dating from our region’s having been awarded one of 13 Department of Labor WIRED grants in 2006 to help redesign regional economic development, workforce development and education systems to support the competitiveness of our business base in a global economy.

In her current position, she advocates for broader adoption of some of the same solutions that were part of the West Michigan WIRED initiative, such as the adoption of industry-specific, standardized credentials for skilled manufacturing workers and the use of career-readiness assessments in high schools.

The long-term solutions hinge on doing a better job of filling a pipeline of capable employees. We often hear politicians sing the praises of quality K-12 and higher education, especially in this election year. It remains to be seen whether state and federal budgeting backs up the premise that a highly skilled and educated workforce is critical to the country’s success.

Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell was driving at similar themes in his recent State of the City 2012 address when he talked about rallying the business community to provide financial support for programs like Upward Bound that help fill the pipeline by teaching leadership skills, workplace skills, the importance of academics and a good work ethic.

On the local level today, a stroll through the “Help Wanted” world illustrates the current need. The list of companies with open opportunities includes Johnson Controls, Gill, Pridgeon & Clay, Benteler, Shape, GHSP, ITW Drawform, Lacks, Ventra, Mahle and Spectrum Industries — and there are doubtless others. They are looking for engineers of many types: mechanical, manufacturing and launch; design, product, and quality engineering manager; process engineers with experience in injection molding; programmer/systems analyst; and a project management technician. This is in addition to hourly labor and skilled trade needs that are accompanying the growth in program launches and production.

We do not hear quite the same level of angst from local employers, who feel that they have an advantage over their peers on the east side of the state because of the quality of life, stable business environment and good employee relations, all of which minimize the level of churn here.

That said, it is not a simple matter to fill all these posts. They will do the best they can in the near term, but elevating the visibility and value of technical and manufacturing careers is crucial for long-term success.

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