{"id":48688,"date":"2012-04-03T09:50:58","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T13:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=48688"},"modified":"2012-04-03T09:50:58","modified_gmt":"2012-04-03T13:50:58","slug":"help-wanted-automakers-cant-fill-all-the-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2012\/04\/help-wanted-automakers-cant-fill-all-the-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Wanted: Automakers Can\u2019t Fill All the Jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Automakers can't meet demand for all their open jobs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The jobs were there, more than 1,000, according to the Engineering Society of Detroit, with everyone from the Detroit automakers to Korea\u2019s Hyundai looking to hire.\u00a0 What, or more precisely, who weren\u2019t there were the job-seekers.<\/p>\n

March was another good month for the U.S. auto industry, which is expected to report another month of double-digit, year-over-year sales gains today.\u00a0 After years, of cutting back production \u2013 closing dozens of plants and eliminating an estimated 88,000 jobs during the Great Recession \u2013 that means automakers are racing to build back up production capacity.\u00a0 They\u2019re also looking to fill empty slots in design, engineering and other departments cut to the bone during the industry\u2019s worst downturn in decades.<\/p>\n

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Subscribe Now - It's Free!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Detroit makers alone have created 10s of thousands of jobs since hitting bottom in 2009 with the bankruptcy of Chrysler and General Motors.\u00a0 And their foreign-owned rivals are also putting out the \u201cHelp Wanted\u201d signs.\u00a0 Volkswagen is already planning a second round of hiring at its new assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.\u00a0 BMW is expanding at its factory in South Carolina.\u00a0 Hyundai\u2019s Alabama assembly line needs more help to meet booming demand.<\/p>\n

And the search is especially frantic in suburban Detroit.\u00a0 Some of the new jobs are coming at places like Chrysler\u2019s Jefferson North Assembly Plant, along the Detroit River, which will soon be running three shifts building products like the Jeep Grand Cherokee.\u00a0 But the real rush is to find trained engineers.<\/p>\n

Virtually every major automaker \u2013 indeed, plenty of minor ones, including some not selling product in the U.S. \u2013 has an engineering center in metro Detroit.\u00a0 With key government testing facilities and an entrenched knowledge base, everyone needs to be there, explains the Engineering Societys Della Cassia.\u00a0 She recalls when Chrysler, pre-bankruptcy, let go of 3,000 engineers and support staff, \u201c) and our phones wouldn\u2019t stop ringing with people looking for jobs.\u00a0 Many had families and were desperate.\u201d<\/p>\n

But at recent job fairs, like the one on March 31st<\/sup>, employers were the ones lined up waiting.<\/p>\n

Neil De Koker, the president and CEO of the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, tells a similar tale.\u00a0 Two years ago, Altair Engineering, one of OESA\u2019s 410 member companies, \u201chad plenty of applications and no jobs.\u201d\u00a0 A few months ago, they put out the word that \u201cthey had 700 engineering slots and no one to fill them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the problem is that the industry now needs to attract a largely new workforce at a time when engineering schools are struggling to fill slots and turn out fresh talent.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the engineering employees released by the struggling Detroit makers over the last five years were older workers nearing the end of their careers.\u00a0 They were often given buyouts that helped nudge them into a less painful retirement.\u00a0 \u201cAnd now,\u201d laments De Koker, \u201cthey just aren\u2019t interested in coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detroit isn\u2019t the only place where the industry is hiring.\u00a0 While the Motor City may have the lead when it comes to issues like homologation \u2013 bringing products into compliance with federal mileage, emissions and safety laws \u2013 there\u2019s a growing automotive presence on the West Coast.\u00a0 Silicon Valley has seen a rapid expansion of carmaker engineering facilities focused on infotainment and related in-car technologies, as well as research into autonomous driving.<\/p>\n

Ford just opened a new R&D center near Stanford University, a hotbed of such technological research.\u00a0 It follows other established auto manufacturers including General Motors, the Renault-Nissan Alliance, BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz.\u00a0 That\u2019s where the engineers skilled in high-tech work, explains Dr. Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Mercedes\u2019 parent Daimler AG.\u00a0 But as with Detroit, industry officials say it\u2019s been tough filling the jobs.<\/p>\n

Even when older workers are there they don\u2019t necessarily qualify, cautions Dr. David Cole, chairman-emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.\u00a0 \u201cThe changes in technology are happening so fast that in many cases, the skills set is missing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole, long associated with U of M, has helped create a non-profit called \u201cBuilding America\u2019s Tomorrow,\u201d which aims to not only increase the number of students who go into engineering but also lure them, along with established engineers, to Michigan.\u00a0 Ford CEO Alan Mulally is among the project\u2019s advisors.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the situation is becoming ever more serious for those with an empty desk.\u00a0 \u201cThree years ago they were paying people to leave. Now we have to put even more money on the table to get them back,” says Gerd Kleinert, chief executive of KSPG Automotive, a supplier of cylinder heads, pumps, valves and pistons.<\/p>\n

In fact, one of the biggest concerns right now, says ESD Executive Vice President Darlene Trudell, is that companies are raiding each other in a desperate bid to hire on the necessary talent, further driving up labor costs.\u00a0 And for lowly suppliers, that\u2019s a serious challenge when they are competing against the deep pockets of major auto manufacturers, like GM, Ford or Toyota.<\/p>\n

For the engineers who got pink-slipped when the auto industry was in dire straits, the situation is very different today.\u00a0 If they\u2019re still looking for work and have the right skills it would be difficult not to find a job.\u00a0 But for those who had been cutting engineering operations three years ago the challenge today is finding the necessary talent.\u00a0 And that equation isn\u2019t likely to change any time soon.<\/p>\n

Portions of this story first appeared in D:Business magazine.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After years of closing plants and slashing jobs, the auto industry is doing an about face, putting out the Help Wanted sign for 1000s of new employees. But, as TheDetroitBureau.com reports, manufacturers are actually struggling to fill all those new jobs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48688"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=48688"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=48688"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=48688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}