A retraining program that works: Finding jobs in Detroit. In the aftermath of Detroit's historic bankruptcy, attention will turn quickly to a much more troubling problem than the city's balance sheet: the crisis of structurally unemployed residents in Detroit. For a true turnaround, the city must put people back to work — but simply prescribing a quick fix would ignore the deeply rooted problems in the labor force, including a lack of modern job skills, rampant illiteracy, transit problems and a fundamental lack of opportunities. The resurgence of downtown and Midtown Detroit is creating jobs for high-tech workers with advanced degrees and spurring new real estate developments aimed at young educated professionals. But the city's economy continues to generate little opportunity for unemployed residents in the impoverished neighborhoods.
That's where the Michigan Economic Development Corp.'s new Community Ventures program is filling a void. Expanding the program Participants averaged 36 years old. Now, Gov. Practical help Barriers removed. Shinola has perfect timing in Detroit. By Kai Ryssdal January 21, 2016 | 3:48 PM There's a new term out there to describe a recent manufacturing movement in America - "Make-tailers. " It's a category of "embedded-in-the-community" companies that produce small-batch, high-quality artisan products. One of the marquee examples of this movement is Shinola.
That name probably rings a bell. Kartsosis is from Plano, Texas, but he chose Detroit for his new company's headquarters and production facility. Shinola has been divisive amongst Detroiters. But Shinola's growth signals corporate success. Marketplace visited Shinola's headquarters in Detroit where the company also has its leather shop. Produced by Tommy Andres. Built in Detroit: Shinola has eyes on Europe. YOU MAY NOT have heard of Shinola, but you will—soon. It was set up in Detroit in 2010, a combination of Swiss machinery and know-how, and American verve. This juvenile watchmaking company is fast growing up, and is aiming to make an impact in Europe.
Its first foothold, having crossed the Atlantic, is in Paris, and this month it can be found in Colette, at 213 rue Saint-Honoré. It's a long way from Detroit, Michigan, to Paris, France—nearly 4,000 miles, to be a little more precise. Three years ago, in autumn 2010, a small group of businessmen, consisting of watch industry stalwarts from Swiss movement manufacturer Ronda and strategic developers from Dallas-based Bedrock Brands, came together to discuss the possibility of regenerating the long-defunct U.S. watch industry.
What emerged was the Shinola watch factory, which established itself on the fifth floor of Detroit's College for Creative Studies. The workforce is, in the main, American. Fast-food workers to next president: Raise wages to $15. Fast-food workers and labor organizers aim to capitalize on the upcoming presidential debates in Michigan and flex their political might by protesting Thursday — and again on Sunday — to demand employers offer $15-an-hour wages. "It's to help workers get a decent wage and form a union," Tyrone Stitt, 43, a maintenance employee at a Taco Bell in Flint, said of the protests today. "I feel like the corporations are making billions of dollars off the backs of low-paid workers — and they aren't paying people what they are worth. " The demonstrations — which workers have been staging in metro Detroit for more than two years — are expected to involve hundreds of employees, including Stitt, and emphasize demands for more pay, better working conditions and calls for racial justice, organizers said.
"Workers have been doing this all over the country," said Kendall Fells, the national organizing director of the Fight for $15 group. Organizers also hope the issue mobilizes people to vote. U.S. Got job skills? Michigan needs you. As baby boomers retire in ever increasing numbers, employers throughout Michigan are facing a growing problem finding workers with the education, training and skills needed to fill their jobs. Industries in Michigan from construction to health care are facing shortages of competent workers. Those shortages are growing more acute as Michigan's unemployment rate continues to decline toward the 5% mark and the pool of available talent shrinks.
Shortages of qualified workers — known as the "skills gap" — presents a drag on Michigan's future economic growth. One area where it is felt most acutely is in the state's construction industry, which is facing shortages of carpenters, electricians and other skilled trades. For an industry still recovering from a catastrophic decline during the Great Recession, this skills gap isn't some distant possibility. It's a here-and-now problem. “We’re already in trouble. The state's Mitalent.org website lists more than 95,000 current job openings in the state. Detroit program aims to hire 8,000 young people this summer.
Grow Detroit’s Young Talent, the city’s summer youth employment program, aims to expand and hire 8,000 young people for six-week jobs that offer a paycheck, job-readiness and work experience, organizers said Tuesday. “Summer jobs are such an important part of many of our lives, and we need to make sure that the children of Detroit have the same opportunity,” Mayor Mike Duggan said at the kickoff event at the Detroit Regional Chamber.
Grow Detroit’s Young Talent provided 5,600 jobs to youths ages 14-24 in summer 2015, up from 2,500 the year before. The group, which consolidated a number of youth employment programs, works with Detroit business, civic and philanthropic groups to provide real-world work experiences, networking and, potentially, a path to a lifelong career, organizers said. Others worked in city forestry jobs, cleaning up parks, or with construction trades unions on boarding up abandoned city schools. One student even interned in Duggan’s office. Op-ed: Apprenticeships Help Close the Skills Gap. Until recently, Preston Bailey worked for a waste disposal company as a hang loader, responsible for the safe removal of waste for businesses and homes around Detroit.
The job was OK, but it paid $8.15 per hour, minimum wage in Michigan. In addition to the low wages, Bailey feared that his career may soon dead end, as he would not be able to progress in his job without a CDL-A license. With a limited skill set to pursue a new job, and with few options for advancement in his current one, he was stuck. Bailey approached the Detroit Employment Solutions Corp., the city's workforce development agency, in January 2015 to seek help.
He would not be able to support himself for much longer earning minimum wage. [READ: Orchestrating Detroit's Comeback: Closing the Skills Gap] Apprenticeship programs provide great value to both apprentices and their employers. For employers, apprenticeships provide the opportunity to train workers in a way that helps them to fill their needs. A Brief History of Outsourcing - SCM | Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) | North Carolina State University. Published on: Jun, 01, 2006 by: Robert Handfield, Ph.D. Executive Director of SCRC, Bank of America University Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management The following report is introductory to Dr Handfield’s research on Current Trends in Production Labor Sourcing. Since the Industrial Revolution, companies have grappled with how they can exploit their competitive advantage to increase their markets and their profits. Initial stages of evolution Outsourcing was not formally identified as a business strategy until 1989 (Mullin, 1996).
Strategic partnerships The current stage in the evolution of outsourcing is the development of strategic partnerships. Eastman Kodak’s decision to outsource the information technology systems that undergird its business was considered revolutionary in 1989, but it was actually the result of rethinking what their business was about. What is outsourcing Why do companies outsource Here are some common reasons: Main factors influencing successful outsourcing.
Detroit Jobs Might Return, But Workers Still Lack Skills. DETROIT, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr has a long list of things to fix in the city and among them is one that may sound surprising: there are not enough skilled workers to fill job openings as they become available. “Every problem in this city revolves around jobs,” said Lindsay Chalmers, vice president of non-profit Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit. “That’s at the heart of the issue for Detroit.” The decline of manufacturing jobs, above all in the automotive industry, has played a major role in the slide of the Motor City’s population to 700,000 from a peak of 1.8 million in the 1950s. Despite recent gains, Michigan has 350,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than in 2000. Seismic shifts in the local labor market have left many unskilled workers behind. “In the old days you could graduate on Friday, get hired at the Ford plant on Monday and they’d train you,” said Sheldon Danziger, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan.