Detroit Renaissance
'Detroit Renaissance' is a term that has been kicked around since the early 1970s. The expression may finally live up to its promise. With all the doom and gloom about the economy, it's hard to find any promise for the future. Detroit seemed a harbinger and poster child for this downturn, and was stuck in a relentless decline over several decades. But times change. In the last couple of days, some reports have circulated that Detroit is set to undergo a massive renaissance in the next five years. American automobile makers face an uphill climb, with well-publicized problems, but they may turn the corner in the Motor City. From Auto Observer:
Detroit-based automakers will hire more than 30,000 new workers in the next four years, reversing years of declining employment in the ranks of Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and the Chrysler Group LLC, said Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor group for the Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research. Data from CAR indicate total employment of the Detroit Three automakers will increase from today’s 171,000 to 201,000 by 2015 and that auto-industry suppliers will need to add from 100,000 to 150,000 new workers over the same period. But the research group’s projected 2015 total employment figure for the Detroit automakers still pales in comparison to the industry’s heyday. In the late 1970s, the Detroit Three employed more than 1 million workers in the United States.
This is a story of Millennial hope. Detroit's decline was one of the saddest stories of industrial collapse in the late twentieth century United States.
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