U.S. Companies Support Auto Jobs

[wt2ga]

Detroit Free Press ..By Justin Hyde ..Jan. 18, 2007

Despite the massive buyouts at General Motors and Ford, American automakers will still support 2.5 times more jobs for every vehicle they build in the United States than their foreign competitors, according to a new report by a domestic industry promotion group.

The Level Field Institute projects the U.S. auto industry will lose 42,750 jobs this year, falling to 378,250 workers. The decline comes from expected cuts at GM, Ford and the Chrysler Group. Level Field expects foreign automakers to add about 3,000 jobs to raise their total U.S. employment to 106,000.

Even after the cuts, the Detroit automakers will employ 33 U.S. workers, including white- and blue-collar employees, per 1,000 vehicles sold, compared with 14 workers per 1,000 vehicles for foreign brands. Chrysler leads with 42 workers per thousand, followed by Ford at 31 and GM at 29.

Few foreign automakers develop new vehicles in the United States, and those that do still rely heavily on foreign engineering for many parts.

[GaryH]

Interesting. I wonder why Chrysler has so many more employees per thousand than GM and Ford.

[Rick Tinley Park]

This is the kind of info I like to see. I get the "XXXX builds its cars here so they support the US economy just like GM."
I always knew it was BS... now I can refer to something in B&W...

[JRinKY]

Rick Tinley Park : This is the kind of info I like to see. I get the "XXXX builds its cars here so they support the US economy just like GM."
I always knew it was BS... now I can refer to something in B&W...

The foreign transplants do support the US economy to a degree, just not as much as the domestics. My job, for example, exists because a Japanese nameplate company built an assembly plant nearby. I work for a Tier I supplier that supplies that plant, other Japanese transplants, and the domestics. But this plant would not be here were it not for the Japanese assembly plant.

Keep in mind too, that the domestic manufacturers are, in many cases, less efficient than their foreign competitors, just as GM is apparently more efficient than Chrysler.