GM cuts are a warning to all

DETROIT (AP) are recognized – for generations the career path for smart children around Detroit was to get an engineering or business degree and be hired by a car manufacturer or supplier. If you worked hard and not turned up, you had a job for life with enough money to raise a family, take vacations and buy a weekend cabin in northern Michigan.

As one-time reliable route to prosperity seems to be disappearing, as stated in General Motor's announcement this week, it plans to throw 8000 workforce jobs over 6000 blue buckles.

It was a humble warning that during this period of rapid and disturbing technological change, those with college education are not necessarily isolated from the kind of layoffs that factory workers know too well.

The deficits reflect a transformation underway in both the automotive industry and the wider US economy, with almost all types of businesses being oriented towards computers, software and automation.

"This is a big megatrend that permeates the entire economy," said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution, who has investigated changes due to the digital age. [19659006] Cities suffered from production losses decades ago are now breaking the issue of fewer opportunities for white employees as managers, lawyers, bankers and accountants. Since 2008, The Associated Press has found that about a third of the major US metro councils have lost a larger proportion of workers than labor jobs. It is a phenomenon that is seen in places like Wichita, Kansas, with its downsized aircraft industry and cities in Wisconsin that have lost auto, industrial machines or furniture jobs.

In GM's case, the jobs being thrown through buyouts and terminations will be largely held by people who are engineered in the combustion engine – engineers and others who have used a career in fuel injection systems, transmissions, exhaust systems and other components that will not be necessary for electric cars that will eventually drive them. GM, the nation's largest automaker, says these vehicles are the future.

"We are talking about skilled people who have made a significant investment in their education," said Marina Whitman, a retired professor in business and public policy. at the University of Michigan and a former GM economist. "Transitions can be extremely painful for a subset of people."

GM still works with white employee employees, but the new jobs are for those who can write software code, design laser sensors or develop batteries and other devices for future cars.

Those who are thrown out of work may need to learn new skills if they hope to find new jobs and emphasize what Whitman said is another truism about the new economy: "You must look at education as a lifetime process. are likely to have more jobs in your life. You must be flexible. "

Whitman said mechanical engineers are smart people who can transfer their skills to software or batteries, but they need training and it takes time and money.

"Earlier with such changes, in the end, new jobs have been created," she said. "Is it going to happen this time, or is the change happening too fast for everyone to be absorbed? I do not know."

Although the job cuts surprised him and his staff, Tracy Lucas, 54, a GM engine leader decided to take buyout and change career. His children are grown and alone, and with 33 years at GM, he will receive retirement and health.

The acquisition will also give him approximately eight months salary, enough time to take his newly earned master's degree in corporate administration and look for other work. He said he would be happy to leave some dull management tasks behind, but would miss a lot of work to reduce engine requirements.

He goes partly, he says, to save a job for younger employees. GM received 2,250 workers to take buyouts and must complete the write-downs in the form of terminations.

"I really hate that we have to go into the whole process of tapping people on the shoulder," Lucas said. "I do not think the other wave will be pretty at all. It's going to be brutal."

Collision cuts – coupled with more people coming to Ford, which also makes the transition from personal ownership to petrol-burning vehicles to ri deling and self-propelled electric cars – could hinder the renaissance running in Detroit, which comes from bankruptcy and a long decline in the population.

Many of these automotive engineers and managers pull down six-figure wages, and some may need to move outside the Detroit Metro Council for New Jobs.

The Brookings Institution's Muro is wondering if car companies will bring more electrical engineers and software developers to Michigan or put them in places where such jobs are already clustered, such as San Francisco, Seattle, Boston or near major research universities.

"This is how regions change and labor markets change," Muro said.

GM says it will employ in the Detroit area, but it has grown in its autonomous vehicle. to over 1000 at offices in San Francisco and Seattle.

Almost all of the 8000 white power cuts will be in Detroit Metropolitan, mainly at GM's Technical Center in Warren, a suburbs north of the city. It is about 4 percent of the management and engineering in the Detroit-Warren area, according to the Ministry of Labor. Management salary in the area of ​​$ 124,000.

Ford, just starting its profitable workforce, has not said how many will go. But even if it's half of GM's total, the losses around Detroit will come closer to them during the financial crisis a decade ago, as the metroråds throw 14,450 management and engineering. It was 8.9 percent of the types of jobs in the metro areas.

Terminations will also spread to car parts suppliers who do not need to design and build so many parts for gasoline cars.

While GM says cutting these positions is necessary to save money to invest in the new technology, there are possible long-term costs of wasting as many experienced workers at one time, especially if the electric vehicle switch stalls said Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, a management professor at Brandeis University. If that were to happen, the losses could leave GM without the vital expertise it needed.

Even the most skilled workers may use less and be prepared to change jobs or places to be employed, said Rick Knoth, a retired GM industrial engineer who survived a downsizing 2008 by taking a retirement package after 37 years of company.

Knoth said he is sure that most engineers are ready enough to make the skills of a new career. But all white-collar workers must be ready for change because it's coming soon, he said.

"The world is not as it used to be, it's for sure," he said. "You can not trust anything."