“More than 2 million manufacturing jobs disappeared during the 2007-09 recession,” said a recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. A fraction of those jobs disappeared from the city of Ypsilanti when the ACH (Visteon) auto-plant owned by Ford Motor Company closed in 2008.
Small storefronts, mostly eateries and pubs, have fended off entropy. Data from the Master Plan drafted by the city shows that eateries and pubs are the most populous business type and make up
13 percent of the local economy, compared to automotive companies’ 7 percent share.
The worry, however, as explained in the Federal Reserve’s report, is that “Such a large decline has renewed concerns that our economy is suffering damage from the loss of particularly good jobs.”
Good jobs don’t come from the food services industry, i.e. eateries and pubs. Nationally, a majority of the jobs created in the recovery have been in retail services and food services. They’ve also been low paying ($7.69 to 13.83 per hour). The National Employment Law Project conducted a study in 2012 which showed “low-wage occupations constituted 21 percent of recession losses, but 58 percent of recovery growth.”
Occupations which paid moderately well ($13.84 to $21.13 per hour) made up 60 percent of recession losses, but only 22 percent of jobs created in the recovery.
Jobs which produced substantial incomes ($21.14 to $54.55 per hour) made up 19 percent of recession job losses and 20 percent of job growth.
Local economic development is meant to assist small businesses and provide economic mobility to residents. Economic mobility can’t be achieved with jobs that only pay $7.69 to $13.83 per hour.
Per capita income is the overall income of a population divided by the number of people included in the population and it can be used to measure the prosperity or lack thereof in an area. The per capita income of Ypsilanti is $21,084 as of the most recent census; it is below that of Washtenaw County ($32,529).
The city has a duty to boost the incomes of its citizens in order to enhance economic mobility. Jobs from heavy industry or the manufacturing sector can help. Ypsilanti used to have those jobs, and they were supposed to return when Angstrom USA, LLC purchased the property on Angstrom Ave. where the abandoned ACH (Visteon) auto-plant rested in 2009.
This plan did not come to completion. The owners of Angstrom USA, LLC unable to obtain a contract from top automakers decided to put the property up for sale.
Globalization has had a terrible effect on heavy industry in the middle of America. Cities along the Rust Belt have been told diversify their economies, move into software production, health care services or computer hardware. All of which they should do.
But they should still try to create heavy industrial and manufacturing jobs. Jobs which pay wages well enough for citizens to move into the middle class.
“Manufacturing remains critical to our ability to build a balanced economy with good jobs,” said former President Bill Clinton in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. “Every new manufacturing job creates an additional 4.6 jobs to support it.”
Fortunately, as the city makes its transitions from a manufacturer’s city to a university city, it does not have to forsake its roots. The property on Angstrom Ave. that previously hosted Ford Motor
Company has a structure that still stands.
The local economy has to benefit residents who are not students at EMU and otherwise have no connection to the university. Market forces will ultimately decide what kind of economic activity occurs within city borders. The city of Ypsilanti needs heavy industry jobs for the sake of its citizens.
