Whitmer whiffs at real auto jobs numbers, again

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer claimed that she’s secured 36,000 auto jobs through subsidies and private jobs announcements since 2019, but the data says otherwise.

In an Oct. 14 news release, Whitmer celebrated an announced investment from Big Three automaker Stellantis.

“Since I took office, we’ve worked across the aisle to win every possible auto project, securing more than 36,000 auto jobs. Thanks to partners like Stellantis and our massive network of auto suppliers, we will continue to dominate the auto industry and bring supply chains home even as we face national economic uncertainty. “We don’t care what you drive—gas, diesel, hybrid, or electric—as long as it’s made in Michigan. Together, let’s keep bringing manufacturing home, growing the middle class, and putting the world on wheels.”

But Whitmer counts every job she’s announced as created. Michigan has lost 9,100 auto and auto parts manufacturing jobs during the Whitmer’s time as governor, according to James Hohman, the Mackinac Center’s fiscal policy director.

“There’s a big difference between what the governor says about the industry and Michigan’s experience,” Hohman told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email. “The state has lost auto jobs during her tenure.”

The Democratic trifecta that controlled the Legislature and governor’s office in 2022 and 2023 approved $4.7 billion in subsidies.

Whitmer’s office hasn’t responded to a request for comment.

Michigan is still a top 10 state – for not creating jobs.

A Mackinac Center for Public Policy study found that only 9% of the jobs announced in major state-sponsored deals from 2000 to 2020 were ever created.

Whitmer is probably counting jobs that seem unlikely to be created, such as jobs provided through Our Next Energy, a battery startup that took $70 million of taxpayer money and now appears to be faltering. She may also be including a proposed Gotion battery plant in Montcalm County, which never appeared and thus did not create 2,350 jobs. Now, the state will seek to claw back $23 million from the Chinese-based company.

Over 30 years, Michigan has lost over 287,000 auto jobs, CapCon has reported.

John Mozena, president of the Center for Economic Accountability, said that Michigan should diversify its economy instead of double down on the auto industry.

“These aren’t jobs, they’re promises, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned in Michigan over the past few decades it’s that auto industry promises about future jobs and prosperity are made to be broken,” Mozena told CapCon in an email. “Michigan’s taxpayers have given billions and billions of dollars to automakers and suppliers over the past few decades and gotten closed factories and laid-off workers in return.”

The automotive industry is highly volatile and employs a shrinking number of people, said Mozena, who spent decades working in the industry.

“Gov. Whitmer and other state elected officials should stop trying to pretend they’re Soviet central planners micromanaging a command economy and instead focus on things that are more likely to make a meaningful difference in Michigan’s economic future,” Mozena said. “That includes reforms like getting kids out of failing schools, fixing crumbling roads, encouraging cheap and reliable energy, repealing counterproductive regulations, restoring right-to-work, and addressing other barriers that currently make Michigan unattractive to good businesses that create good jobs.”