Steve Lowe Jr. is scrambling to find more than a dozen skilled machinists, experienced engineers and laborers after his company recently won a multimillion-dollar contract to build giant camshafts for diesel locomotive engines. He said he’s sought out state work force agencies, local community colleges and employment agencies in seeking the workers he needs to […]
Is shortage due to skills or wages?
Posted inBusiness Watch
Average Michigan wage earner is $5,000 behind other Americans
When politicians talk about Michigan’s “lost decade” of the 2000s, they usually focus on the huge number of jobs shed by the state. Michigan lost 863,300 payroll jobs between April 2000 and July 2009, at the bottom of the state’s downturn, or nearly one out of every five jobs. But a less-discussed element of that […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Jackson businesses try DIY job-training to create skilled workers
DIY EMPLOYMENT: Welding students practice at the Jackson Academy for Manufacturing Careers, a job-training center started by manufacturers to fill a training gap left by cutbacks in public programs. Welders are in high demand right now and can earn $25 an hour. (courtesy photo/used under Creative Commons license) After voters turned down a millage request […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
* States, including Michigan, have been reducing their financial commitment to higher education. The result: “Tuition revenues are up substantially due to higher prices and more enrollments, but not enough to offset losses of public funding,” said Paul Lingenfelter, the president of the higher education group, based in Boulder, Colo. “Students are paying more, while public […]
Posted inPhil's Column
Michigan, nation will sorely miss Levin’s leadership, integrity
One major thought popped into my brain when I heard Carl Levin had decided not to run for a seventh term in the U.S. Senate next year: “Class is a lot like pornography. You can’t define it, but you sure know it when you see it.” Carl is a class act, through and through. And […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Legislators favor bear petting, despite zookeepers’ warnings
Despite resistance from the state’s traditional zookeepers, a bill written to keep visitors to an Upper Peninsula tourist attraction petting its bears appears bound for the governor’s desk. Senate Bill 48, written specifically for Oswald’s Bear Ranch near Newberry, passed the House last week on a 56-52 vote. It heads back to the Senate, where […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Sunshine obscured by smog
By Rich Robinson/Michigan Campaign Finance Network “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” — Luke 12: 48 Dear State Officeholder: Please set aside the archaic sexism of the verse I’ve quoted to introduce this letter. Our […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Michigan’s Great Start preschool program helps children learn
By Lawrence J. Schweinhart/HighScope Educational Research Foundation Dear Michigan Legislator: In recent testimony before committees of the Michigan House of Representatives, Michael Van Beek of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy challenged the evidence supporting expansion and improvement of Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program. As director of the Great Start Readiness Program Evaluation and the […]
Posted inTalent & Education
School experts wrestle with choice, early ed policies (with video)
A capacity audience of parents and education leaders turned out for a televised townhall in Wixom Wednesday, co-hosted by the Center for Michigan and Detroit Public Television. The agenda of the session was to review and analyze the findings in CFM’s latest report, “The Public’s Agenda for Public Education: How Michigan citizens want to improve […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
State again riding auto upswing
Nearly given up for dead a few years ago, Michigan’s automakers have come roaring back and are leading one of the strongest state economic recoveries in the nation. Today, General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC are churning out billions of dollars in profits and are hiring thousands of workers. But we’ve seen […]
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