Whether or not you’re a fan of The General, there’s no denying its colossal impact on the North American, and even global, economies. Simply put, GM employs around 80,000 workers in the U.S. and more than 210,000 worldwide. Those numbers have risen from 2010 levels of 77,000 and 202,000, respectively.
U.S. auto sales are expected to rise from 12.8 million units in 2011 to 14 million units in 2012. So if The General can hold onto (or even grow) its 19.6 percent U.S. market share, it will probably have to boost capacity by hiring even more workers. More jobs leads to a reduced rate of unemployment, which in turn leads to a healthier economy and — theoretically — better living.
Not to be accused of being one-sided, this is also true of other major automobile manufacturers.
Common sense? Sure. But it never hurts to lay out the facts… especially on a Monday morning — daylight savings be damned.
Comments
What’s wrong with this picture? Only 80,000 workers in the USA versus 210,000 worldwide?! GM, as well as the other auto manufacturers, should be increasing OUR workforce. Make them here, ship them there!
The U.S population is 300 million
The world population is 7 BILLION.
We comprise only about 4% af the world population
Yet we have almost 40% of GMs workforce.
Its elementry school math.
Oh and why should automakers be bringing jobs here?
GM is a business, there primary concern is not the welfare of the economy or our unemployment rate,(leave that to the Government) but rather is and should be the search for greater profit. Why should we demand that our companies be somehow morally obligated to bring jobs here when it would hurt their business, not just in terms of added labor costs, but also in terms of flexibility and effeciency. To you and all of those people who clamor for bringing jobs here. If most American companies had all of their workforce here, they would be so uncompetitive that they would probably sieze to exist. And then we would even lose the outsized portion of jobs that we currently have.
That’s exactly on point, Babersher. A publicly-traded company’s legal duty is to act in the best interests of its shareholders, which basically translates to short-term and long-term profit. Nothing less, nothing more. Since profit is often maximized by manufacturing outside of the United States and North America in general, General Motors is doing just that.
A perfect manufacturing scenario would call for a company to hold manufacturing operations at a continent’s least expensive and most efficient location(s). We should be glad that the U.S. has any manufacturing jobs left in the first place due to the higher/highest cost of labor…
It is people like you, with your “simple math” that has helped create the terrible crisis we now have in our country. Everything is the bottom line and to hell with everything else. The auto companies had better be concerned with our economy. AMERICANS without jobs can’t buy cars. It’s our companies and business that make our economy grow…not the Government. The situation OUR country is in didn’t happen overnight. It has slowly progressed to the mess we are now in. Business were great 40 years ago when things were made here. I’d gladly pay more for anything just to see “Made in USA” imprinted on it.
What you’re describing is called natural change and the free market. The former happens (naturally) in the world while the latter is one of the principles this country was founded on. It’s never good to try to stop it either.
The U.S. needs to further move the workforce into skilled positions globally rather than relying on the laurels of 40-60 years ago, don’t you think?
Do you really think that if GM brought all of their jobs to the U.S our economy would be great and we would never have had the crisis?
You seem to hate my “simple math” for some reason, but I have to bring it up again. We currently have about 12.75 million unemployed at about 8.3%. If GM brought all their jobs here, than the number of unemployed would fall to 12. 54 million or about 8.3%. So while it wouldnt really affect our economy, it would greatly affect GM’s ability to be competitive.
“Americans without jobs can’t buy cars” really? In 2008 the worst shape our economy has been since the Great Depression, Americans still bought more cars than any region in the world after China, despite having only 4% of the population. Oh and Volkswagen, the worlds #2 automaker didnt even have a presence in America until quite recently, so selling cars in America is not a precursor to success.
Of course its our busnisess that make our company grow, that we should encourage them to be profitable rather than bleeding cash to the tune of billions of dollars because we insist that they have all of their workforce here.
Mentalities and attitudes of 40 years is what has slowly caused the mess we are now. That and subprime loans. 40 years ago there really was no globalization, no internet, and no competition from Japan and China. We have to change to match the ever changing world we live in. The “old GM” refused to change the business methods that had worked 40 years ago, look what happened to them.
And while you may have the financial means to pay more for things made in America, most Americans dont. Not to mention that people who will buy an inferior product just because it is American is actually hurting that company by encouraging it to be complacent and discouraging it to innovate and make the best products.
Baber, remind me to get you an drink sometime for typing out what I would have typed.
Thats like a 1:3 ratio