Michigan’s auto jobs drive South from 8 Mile to I-65
Motor State lost more than 125,000 auto jobs over the last two decades — a 41% drop — while Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and other states gained tens of thousands
Detroit put the world on wheels in the 20th century, but from 2001 to 2023, it shed more auto jobs than any other state, as factories and workers flocked to the South, according to an analysis from Michigan Capitol Confidential.
Michigan lost more than 125,000 auto jobs over the last two decades — a 41% drop — while Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and other states gained tens of thousands.
Jobs sprouted in Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky.
Ford, General Motors, BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Subaru, Hyundai and Kia have all built factories in Southern states rather than in Michigan since the 1990s.
Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee increased their auto and auto parts jobs 203%, 86%, 32%, and 24%, respectively, from 2001 to 2023. Michigan and the rest of the northern auto producers lost auto jobs.
The number of auto jobs in Illinois dropped by about 5% and Ohio dropped 35%.
There are also fewer jobs in the industry. The United States was down 188,070 auto jobs over the period. Michigan lost the most jobs in raw numbers and on a percentage basis.
Although Michigan has added a small number of auto jobs since 2009, losses from 2001 to 2009 were much larger.
The industry isn’t producing more vehicles, and they’re able to do it with fewer workers. Sales are down 8%, but jobs are down 16%, according to James Hohman, the Director of Fiscal Policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
“Jobs are up when sales are up and down when sales are down, and sales don’t look like they’re going to go up by a lot any time soon,” Hohman told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email.
The biggest winner was North Carolina, which added 1 million+ jobs in other industries over the period. But the Tarheel State lost 12% of its auto jobs in that time.
Even auto winner Alabama added five times more jobs in other sectors than it did in auto jobs.
The number of overall jobs in North Carolina from 2000 to 2023 increased by more than 27%, while the number of jobs in Tennessee grew by 23.7%. The overall national average of jobs growth during those years was 18.3%.
Meanwhile, the number of overall jobs in Michigan increased by 0.4%.
The United States lost 188,070 auto jobs and added 24 million jobs in other industries from 2001 to 2023.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.