Panic in Detroit: unemployment heads for 50%

editor · Dec 21, 2009

Detroit's had it tougher then most American cities for a long time, but according to this report nearly half of its workers are unemployed:

Nearly half of Detroit's workers are unemployed
Analysis shows reported jobless rate understates extent of problem
Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News

Despite an official unemployment rate of 27 percent, the real jobs problem in Detroit may be affecting half of the working-age population, thousands of whom either can't find a job or are working fewer hours than they want.

Using a broader definition of unemployment, as much as 45 percent of the labor force has been affected by the downturn.

And that doesn't include those who gave up the job search more than a year ago, a number that could exceed 100,000 potential workers alone.

"It's a big number, and we should be concerned about it whether it's one in two or something less than that," said George Fulton, a University of Michigan economist who helps craft economic forecasts for the state.

Mayor Dave Bing recently raised eyebrows when he said what many already suspected: that the city's official unemployment rate was as believable as Santa Claus. In Washington for a jobs forum earlier this month, he estimated it was "closer to 50 percent."

Notwithstanding the difficulty of getting precise figures, this is terrible stuff for its citizens.

http://www.detnews.com/article/2009...arly-half-of-Detroit-s-workers-are-unemployed

Gibeon · Dec 21, 2009

Yeah its a terrible situation for the motor city that.

I remember reading that sections of it get closed off and are run by private security firms. It might be a load of rubbish but this is the article:

http://www.almartinraw.com/public/column417.html

david dissadent · Dec 21, 2009

Derivatives hit the cities tax payers badly.

A story repeated all across America. State, county and city level finances are in horrible condition all across America and governemnt sector job losses are starting to mount but only really getting underway.

The Detroit Pontiac Silverdome was recently sold for something like $500 000 or so as it was deemed the value of the land minus the demolition costs.

Green shoots though folks, lots and lots of greenshoots if you pretend to see them.

weltweit · Dec 21, 2009

So what happenned to all those Motor City jobs then?

ohmyliver · Dec 21, 2009

Gibeon said:
Yeah its a terrible situation for the motor city that.

I remember reading that sections of it get closed off and are run by private security firms. It might be a load of rubbish but this is the article:

http://www.almartinraw.com/public/column417.html

blimey, who would have thought that Robocop would become a work of prophesy (obviously they've not built the robotic policeman yet, but....)

It's a fairly shocking stat.

david dissadent · Dec 21, 2009

weltweit said:
So what happenned to all those Motor City jobs then?

Mexico, China and so on. They also have moved to Southern states as German, Japanese and Korean car manufacturers were able to manufacture cars in America far cheaper than Detroit, infact I think GM came close to not having a car manufactured in the US. Them and Ford did make loads of truck and SUVs though, but the oil price bull run of the 2000s squeezed hard on the market for giant SUVs and that was followed by the credit crunch cheap finance dissapeared over night.

Incidently people will often hear Republicans giving it large over not bailing out GM and co, but many of them come from states with Japanese or German car manufacturers in the South so are pretty much playing for local votes against well paid highly unionised big 3 jobs in Democratic congressional districts.

butchersapron · Dec 21, 2009

The whole town was gutted out in the early 80s- the first victim of monetarism. Those empty suburbs been there empty near 30 years. Best city in the world.

Ibn Khaldoun · Dec 22, 2009

bet the casino's still doing well

spring-peeper · Dec 22, 2009

weltweit said:
So what happenned to all those Motor City jobs then?

Motor City was just that. A city built around the motor vehicle. As the plants prospered, so did the spin off-industries. Plants to build the parts for the auto industry, industries based around servicing the plant. Add to that, a number of highly paid employees wanting to spend their pay cheques. It was the American Dream - the chance to give your children everything that you never had. Retail and the service industries boomed.

Then came the time when the auto industries were not making money anymore. Even with government bailouts from both Canada and the United States, plants had to close to keep the company viable.

Many plants are being closed, but others - the more modern and the plants with higher quality standards are being kept open. Detroit was not producing, the plants started closing, the small companies that made the plants shut down. The effects on the community is no more money for the service and retail businesses. They start shutting down. It's horrible, and is being repeated over and over.

cesare · Dec 22, 2009

spring-peeper said:
Motor City was just that. A city built around the motor vehicle. As the plants prospered, so did the spin off-industries. Plants to build the parts for the auto industry, industries based around servicing the plant. Add to that, a number of highly paid employees wanting to spend their pay cheques. It was the American Dream - the chance to give your children everything that you never had. Retail and the service industries boomed.

Then came the time when the auto industries were not making money anymore. Even with government bailouts from both Canada and the United States, plants had to close to keep the company viable.

Many plants are being closed, but others - the more modern and the plants with higher quality standards are being kept open. Detroit was not producing, the plants started closing, the small companies that made the plants shut down. The effects on the community is no more money for the service and retail businesses. They start shutting down. It's horrible, and is being repeated over and over.

My ex is from Oshawa, a GM centered town. They thought all of it would go, but so far, just the van part. The main plant's still going.

spring-peeper · Dec 22, 2009

cesare said:
My ex is from Oshawa, a GM centered town. They thought all of it would go, but so far, just the van part. The main plant's still going.

We have been very lucky.

I think our strength has been in partnerships with the Ontario government to upgrade some of the plants and diversification. The other overwhelming factor that the southern-Ontario plants is the Canadian work ethic.

With respect to the diversification, southern Ontario is also the home of Toyota and several other manufacturers. Only a portion of the southern Ontario manufacturing is being affected.

That said, some families are loosing a lot right now. My heart goes out to them, especially at this time of year. But none of our areas are being devastated like what we are seeing in Detroit and other parts of the US.

Pickman's model · Dec 22, 2009

i had on a look on google maps and on the pictures large blocks *are* devastated, it looks fucking mental.

Pickman's model · Dec 22, 2009

spring-peeper said:
Motor City was just that. A city built around the motor vehicle. As the plants prospered, so did the spin off-industries. Plants to build the parts for the auto industry, industries based around servicing the plant. Add to that, a number of highly paid employees wanting to spend their pay cheques. It was the American Dream - the chance to give your children everything that you never had. Retail and the service industries boomed.

Then came the time when the auto industries were not making money anymore. Even with government bailouts from both Canada and the United States, plants had to close to keep the company viable.

Many plants are being closed, but others - the more modern and the plants with higher quality standards are being kept open. Detroit was not producing, the plants started closing, the small companies that made the plants shut down. The effects on the community is no more money for the service and retail businesses. They start shutting down. It's horrible, and is being repeated over and over.

like those gold rush cities, only of longer duration.

phildwyer · Dec 22, 2009

Apparently large areas of the city are now completely lawless, anything-goes zones, much like the South Bronx or Lower East Side in the '80s. It wouldn't surprise me if a bunch of anarchists moved in there.

yield · Dec 22, 2009

spring-peeper said:
We have been very lucky.

It's not luck. Canada has better health care and education. It's cheaper for GM and Ford to build a car there because they have less health insurance to pay out.

London_Calling · Dec 22, 2009

I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest a large part of why the US healthcare bill passed this week is because of the ever-increasing impact on competitiveness of the current system. It's killing international competitiveness in the US.

newbie · Dec 22, 2009

Pickman's model said:
i had on a look on google maps and on the pictures large blocks *are* devastated, it looks fucking mental.

butch is right, though. I drove around Detroit and Flint in the mid 80s and was was shocked by the empty and abandoned homes and air of utter hopelessness. Fantastic city, mind, and I'm sure the suburbs could have been lovely (if you're into sprawl) but it mostly looked like hell on earth to me, something my friend who grew up there largely confirmed.

edit this is what I saw, with half the houses in an area occupied and the rest in this sort of state.

Barking_Mad · Dec 22, 2009

Video here, worth the watch - for all the wrong reasons.. :

and

Blog here : http://detroitsghetto.blogspot.com/

Although im not sure why you'd want to buy a DVD of run down Detroit...Disaster capitalism!

Like my Detroit videos? Want to buy them on DVD? Now you can. Click the "Buy Now" button below to send $15 through payapl and I'll mail you a DVD which includes all 3 "A Tour Of Detroit's Ghetto" videos, PLUS picture slideshows of parts 2 and 3. Shipping is included if you live in the US or Canada, contact me if you live elsewhere.

Barking_Mad · Dec 22, 2009

There's a very sad photo on the blog too with the accompanying text,

In January 2009, a man in his mid 50s named Johnnie Redding was found frozen in several feet of ice at the bottom of an elevator shaft in the Detroit Public School Warehouse (also known as the Roosevelt Warehouse). This is the building next to Michigan Central Train Depot. The River Rouge resident was discovered by some kids playing hockey on the floor in the basement which had flooded and frozen over. The police thought it was a hoax and never responded to the first call.

Apparently, the body had been just sitting in the bottom of the shaft for weeks. None of the numerous homeless people living inside the warehouse bothered to call the police. Even after the authorities were notified(multiple times), it was several days before anyone came out. It took a jackhammer to remove the body, who was later identified by his wallet.

Officials say that Johnnie killed himself. His autopsy revealed no broken bones, no wounds and no water in his lungs, which means he did not fall into the flooded shaft and drown. Most likely, Johnnie was smoking cocaine with somebody and died, coroners suspect. Johnnie's party pal may have panicked and tossed his body down the water-filled shaft.

London_Calling · Dec 22, 2009

So, if anyone is left wondering what 'sub-prime mortgages' meant . . .and what we're all, literally, now paying for . . .

Barking_Mad · Dec 22, 2009

This is worth a read, the archives have some really interesting photo essays in them

http://www.detroitblog.org/?m=200910

And this one...

Rick’s lived a hard life. He grew up in the Cass Corridor. “My mother was a heroin addict, my dad was a cokehead and my sister was a stripper,” he says. “So that was a way of life.” He did drugs and sold drugs, used a gun to rob someone and was sent to prison. He got out, assaulted someone and was sent back again.

He swears he’s a new man since his release, but he can’t find work because few employers are eager to hire a felon, particularly when the economy has tanked. He is, despite his life in the streets, a trained chef, and has worked in a few respectable restaurants around town before being sent away.

fredfelt · Dec 22, 2009

Surely part of the cause of the car plants shutting down due to limited regulations demanding cleaner vehicles being sold to the American market? It seems to me that car companies offering more efficient models to the European market are still in business. Many Americans simply brought more efficient cars made elsewhere.

Meltingpot · Dec 22, 2009

This is sad. I have distant relatives in Detroit through my godmother's family and have long taken an interest in the city though I've never been there.

paolo · Dec 22, 2009

Barking_Mad said:
This is worth a read, the archives have some really interesting photo essays in them

http://www.detroitblog.org/?m=200910

Some interesting and well written pieces there.

shagnasty · Dec 24, 2009

Much of the industry as moved to the south the ironic thing is many of the black people from the south moved to motown for a better life .But this is capitalism , make your money,move out and fuck the mess you leave behind .no wonder they are the biggest climate change deniers.Yes their are green shoots its the weeds breaking through the rubble from peoples lifes

Compact Jam · Dec 24, 2009

50% unemployment only means you're not doing something for half your time

spring-peeper · Dec 24, 2009

Pickman's model said:
like those gold rush cities, only of longer duration.

It's a sad commentary on what happens when a town is built around a single industry.

The people usually leave the area and move to areas that have better job opportunities. Behind becomes a ghost town.

But I can't see this happening in Detroit's case. The city will regenerate. It may not be the same as it was before, but it will still be Detroit. A couple of nights ago, I was watching a hockey game from Detroit. Those fans weren't cheering for a dying city, they were cheering for Detroit, the survivours.

Yossarian · Dec 24, 2009

spring-peeper said:
A couple of nights ago, I was watching a hockey game from Detroit. Those fans weren't cheering for a dying city, they were cheering for Detroit, the survivours.

Nah, they were cheering for the Red Wings.

Detroit and the state of Michigan have been losing a lot of people for a long time - the exodus out of Detroit started in the '60s.

I was there a lot in the '90s when I lived over the river in Windsor and a lot of the city already seemed like a ghost town - the suburbs seemed to be in much better shape but it sounds like they've now started going into serious decline as well.

spring-peeper · Dec 24, 2009

Yossarian said:
Nah, they were cheering for the Red Wings.

My son has the same affliction

Detroit and the state of Michigan have been losing a lot of people for a long time - the exodus out of Detroit started in the '60s.

I was there a lot in the '90s when I lived over the river in Windsor and a lot of the city already seemed like a ghost town - the suburbs seemed to be in much better shape but it sounds like they've now started going into serious decline as well.

I was thinking of an article that YW had posted about some artsy-fartsy types moving in due to low cost housing etc. I think that Detroit will still remain, but will be a different.

It's a pity that Detroit City isn't around to comment. Didn't he move from there to Chicago???

little_legs · Dec 24, 2009

Pickman's model said:
i had on a look on google maps and on the pictures large blocks *are* devastated, it looks fucking mental.

The current Economist issue has an optimistic article on Detroit. The city has become an area of art, has a potential to become a major movie shooting area, and who knows, perhaps even a gambling mecca. The latter is perhaps too much to hope for given the proximity of Atlantic City, NJ.

http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15108683

Panic in Detroit: unemployment heads for 50%

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