AP: Volkswagen opened a plant in Tennessee last month with 2,000 workers. Honda is hiring 1,000 in Indiana to meet demand for its best-selling Civic. General Motors is looking for 2,500 in Detroit to build the Chevy Volt.
Two years after the end of the Great Recession, the auto industry is hiring again – and much faster than the rest of the economy … The hiring spree is even more remarkable because memories of the U.S. auto industry’s near-death experience are fresh. In 2009, General Motors and Chrysler both got government bailouts and entered bankruptcy, and auto sales hit a 30-year low.
In June of that year, about 623,000 people were employed by the auto industry in the United States, the fewest since the early 1980s. Now the figure is almost 700,000, a 12 percent increase.
Sales are back up, too, and automakers are hiring by the thousands to meet increased demand.
…Besides hiring 2,000 people itself, Volkswagen figures the plant, where it will make its new Passat, will create 9,000 spin-off jobs in the region, including 500 at auto-supplier plants that are springing up nearby.
…. The auto gains have been widespread, with the Midwest the biggest beneficiary. In Ohio alone, auto manufacturing jobs have risen 31 percent the past two years, while parts makers in Michigan have added nearly 20,000 jobs …. Parts jobs are also up 15 percent in Alabama and in Kentucky…
… GM, Ford and Chrysler are all making money for the first time since the mid-2000s and adding workers to build popular models like the revamped Ford Explorer….
…Auto companies are racing to hire white-collar workers, too. Monster.com has more than 100 postings for auto engineers, including a handful for Hyundai and Subaru. Electric batteries, touch-screen dashboards and other technology are becoming more common, so automakers need engineers with expertise.
…”I really do believe that we are seeing a renaissance in the American automobile industry,” says James Brock, a professor of economics at Miami University.
Full article here – Thank you Suzanne
The Obama Diary 
Thank you President Obama for saving the Auto Industry.
Ditto.
I second you Theo 😉
I third you Fred 😉
Co-signed. OMG, who here is relishing a debate between the Scarecrow and PBO? He’d be singing “If I had a brain” so fast I think I’d almost feel sorry for him………NOT!!!!! 😆
Totally cosigned, Lisa. Mittens is so shameless because he thinks the majority of Americans are idiots. But then again he is a Republican. Like most Republicans facts and reality do not matter.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/05/obama-stop-texas-mexican-execution
“resident Barack Obama is attempting to block the execution in Texas on Thursday of a Mexican man because it would breach an international convention and do “irreparable harm” to US interests.
The White House has asked the US supreme court to put the execution of Humberto Leal Garcia on hold while Congress passes a law that would prevent the convicted rapist and murderer from being put to death along with dozens of other foreign nationals who were denied proper access to diplomatic representation before trials for capital crimes.
The administration moved after the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, brushed aside appeals from diplomats, top judges, senior military officers, the United Nations and former president George W Bush to stay Leal’s execution because it could jeopardise American citizens arrested abroad as well as US diplomatic interests.”
And this guy wants to be President? WHAT A NUT!
That guy’s a fucking NUT!! Even GW hates his sorry ass. Ugh 🙄 When even GW thinks you’re unfit, that’s saying something 😕
Hey chip,
Send boner this info. He wanted to know where the jobs are?
I don’t want to make him cry, so I better not.
Chipsticks, your response was simply delicious!
Mittens is becoming a stalker. He looks at PBO schedule and follows him in that state or writes an oped in the local town paper before PBO gets there. Someone needs to tell him he looks awful in jeans too, his smile is so plastic I can’t stand it.
I noticed that also Me4obama. He’s been doing that for a while now. Following the President to Illinois, Pennsylvania, Iowa. I’m like Mittens, no matter how loud you yell, President Obama doesn’t have time for you. Frankly your behavior is disturbing and your stalker like crush on the cool kid (the President) is not reciprocated. Mittens is also going to London to conduct a fundraiser (thank you Supreme Court for the beauty of Citizens United; she writes sarcastically) and why is he going there?….. oh yeah President Obama just had a lovely working visit and Mittens wants to reciprocate the avalanche of goodwill that was showered on President Obama. #RomneyFail.
Surely that idiot doesn’t think he’ll be very welcomed there? I mean other than Murdoch who has his hands full right now, who does the Mittster think he’s gonna charm? PBO’s approval ratings the world over are huge. Nobody’s gonna pass over fine wine for cheap bullsh*t. Come on Mittens, wizen up 🙄
Me4obama, I would love to fly wherever Mitty will be next and deliver the news in person. I have been soooooooooo much wanting to break the news to him. He cannot ever look cool like POB. Not now, not ever.
Youngstown mayor to be named White House point man on auto industry jobs
http://mobile.cleveland.com/advcleve/pm_100803/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=VqgtfpoK
Great news for the administration and for everyone.
Because he Is plastic. I’m just at a loss for words that he can just change his rhetoric, you think he thinks people forget what he has said In the past? Do you think he realizes that he Is a flip flopper??? If anyone flips as many times as the Mitt, well you can’t help but look plastic, with a phony smile eeeeeeeeeeeee 🙄
Heads up Guys: Rev. Al Sharpton is on MSNBC covering for that hack Cenk and he is on fire!
I’m at work – Cali time! What is he saying?
Thanks Chipsticks for this good news! I passed it on 🙂
Mitt Romney is pitiful. This guy said the economy was bad, but Obama made it worse, he said that over three times. Then he comes back and say he didn’t say that Obama made things worse. In 2008 he said that the auto industry should not be bail out, it would be a mistake. Now that the auto industry is on it’s way back, thanks to President Obama leadership, Romney says he is glad Obama took his advice and bail out the auto industry. No wonder the Republicans aren’t satisfied with Romney. This guy would tell his wife he loves her, then stand before the media and say I don’t recall saying that.
Jennifer, Jennifer, me loves you. How cn we clone you and spread your spirit all over the rest of the Dems?
Thank you, Mr. President for your actions to save the Auto Industry. Thank you for showing us leadership. Mr. President, maybe someone needs to send Mitt the memo.
“How’s that hopey bailout thingy workin out for you now Mittens”
Love it!!!!! 😆