Manufacturing a Legacy

As Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm did an exit interview with WJR talk show host Mitch Albom, they spoke about the loss of outsourced manufacturing jobs to other countries.

“That is a circumstance that is not the governor’s making,” Granholm said.

Granholm told WXYZ TV: "It's just ridiculous. Would that the governor of Michigan had the power to control globalization or the global shift in manufacturing jobs or the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler. I don't have that power. Engler didn't have that power. Snyder's not going to have that power."

But James Hohman, fiscal analyst for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, says that Granholm’s track record outside of the auto industry was not any better.

From 2000 to 2009, manufacturing jobs went from 896,651 to 468,051 in Michigan, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

But Hohman points out that non-manufacturing industries such as construction (lost 85,625 jobs), information/publishing (lost 21,502 jobs), finance/insurance (lost 14,057 jobs) and even government (lost 41,667) jobs were among those reporting job losses this past decade.

For example, the “professional, scientific and technical services” jobs classification includes lawyers, architects, advertising, marketing, laboratory workers and computer system designs and related computer jobs. That classification has gone from 279,041 jobs in 2000 to 224,919 in 2009. That’s a 19 percent loss of total jobs.

“It says Michigan’s economic problems are deep and broad and the Governor has refused to do anything about that,” Hohman said. “You can’t just blame that on the auto industry.”

One of the few industries to grow during the Granholm era was health care and social assistance. That industry grew 78,315 jobs from 2000 to 2009 from 459,902 to 538,217.