Community College Journal - December 2011/January 2012

• Technological change—including innovations to meet new fuel economy, air quality, and safety regulations— is faster, and the cadence of getting new products to market has become more rapid. Companies must hire skilled workers to research, develop, design, engineer, and produce vehicles with advanced systems technology.

Uptick in Michigan
automotive jobs
since the 2008–09
automotive
industry crisis. 21% 21%

Source: Center for Automotive Research

By 2015, Detroit Three (Chrysler, Ford, and GMC) hourly employment is expected to rise by more than 27,000 to 128,135 workers, according to the Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research (CAR). The trend for hourly labor productivity—or number of hourly employees per vehicle produced—is also expected to increase steadily, having risen sharply between 2005 and 2009 when employment fell by more than 56 percent.

By 2015, Detroit Three salaried employment is expected to rise by almost 16,000 to 71,262. The number of salaried employees in the automotive workforce rose sharply between 2005 and 2009, as large numbers of hourly workers left companies. Those numbers continued upward in 2010, as automakers hired more engineering and technical workers to help re-engineer products and develop and deploy advanced technologies. However, part-time and hourly workers continue to play an integral role.

CAR interviewed human resources
employees, flexibility re- mains king in the revamped automotive sector. Temporary workers are a permanent fixture in
today’s automotive workforce. Automak-
ers and suppliers rely on a temporary
labor force to backfill for workers absent
due to vacation or illness.

leaders at the Detroit Three and a number of suppliers and asked how the 2008–09 auto industry downturn changed their approach to hiring and retaining workers. Researchers also asked if the changes made during the crisis would continue and if there was any reluctance to hire new workers—by increasing utilization, using temporary workers, outsourcing, or simply hiring fewer permanent workers.

Flexible Workers

Despite recent hiring increases within the automotive industry, overall staffing has not returned to pre-crisis levels.

Automotive and parts makers who responded to the CAR survey were unanimous in their opinion that future workers will be expected to wear more hats and to work more efficiently.

Almost across the board, human resources executives remain hesitant to bring on new full-time hourly workers, and nearly all firms interviewed rely on overtime and temporary and contract workers to iron out fluctuations in demand or to respond to short-term spikes in program work.