The LSJ has a nice editorial pointing out the not-so-obvious- manufacturing jobs are returning.
There is encouraging news for the area's economy if you know where to look.
Manufacturing jobs are returning, not in big waves, but in smaller, sustainable increments - singles and doubles rather than home runs.
The announcement this week by Gestamp US HardTech Inc. that it will add 150 jobs and double the size of its Mason metal stamping operation to about 450,000 square feet is the sort of news that suggests we are rebuilding the economic base. This is a $74 million investment from a company that could have sited its plant in any number of states or countries. Gestamp, headquartered in Madrid, Spain, says pay will average about $564 a week, and certainly it could have found locations with cheaper labor. But quality counts, and the skilled labor pool available to companies in mid-Michigan is superb.
Other manufactures agree. Bridgewater Interiors will have 650 workers at a Lansing plant manufacturing seats and overhead systems for GM's Delta plant. Spartan Motors in Charlotte has begun a $14.5 million expansion, partly for firetruck chassis and cab operations. Demmer Corp. is building a new Lansing plant that will create 380 jobs for defense-related work.
And Martinrea in Manchester, adding another 200 jobs.
I see stories like this all the time- they tend to fly under the radar.
MEDC has a page with all the major announcements of this year- and looking at it makes me glad I didn't try to go back through the archives and count all these numbers up. It would have taken hours.
The truth is out there, you just have to open your eyes.