The past few entries in "Almost Live" have been looking at the issue of jobs (or the elimination there of).
So why do we care so much about employment in the auto industry (the obvious point notwithstanding)? Well a new study by the University of Michigan nails it.
According to the findings of a study conducted for the Alliance of Automobile Manufactueres and the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers that looked at the impact of the auto industry on the U.S. economy, 1.3 million Americans are directly employed in the auto industry, either making vehicles (621,300 people) or selling them (717,400). But the jobs of 6.6-million U.S. workers are linked to making and selling cars.
According to George A. Fulton, an economist at the U-M Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, "As might be expected, a large number of the supplier jobs are in the manufacturing sector-fabricated and primary metals, machinery and computers, electrical equipment, plastics, and fabrics. What is less well known is the high level of indirect employment in the private non-manufacturing sector that is liked to automotive manufacturing. Activities such as business and professional services, wholesale trade, trucking and finance are more linked to the supplier network for automotive manufacturing than is often recognized."
So whenever you hear someone talk about the service economy or even the information economy, know that for lots of people in those two fields, without the auto industry they'd be, well, perhaps not even collecting a paycheck.
