Figgins said he knew hundreds of people had shown up on the first day, so he brought his kids there early on the second. He found a place to park and waited in his van, vowing to stay as long as he needed for his children to complete the day’s application process.
“There’s a hunger in this community,” he said, looking at the steady stream of people joining the line. “These people want to work.”
Michigan’s overall unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent this spring, but it stood at 6.8 percent in Genesee County, which includes Flint. The county number represents a labor force of 174,885 with about 12,000 people actively looking for jobs.
Yet at the same time, as in other areas of Michigan, the labor force shrunk during the pandemic. In Genesee, that means another 7,415 people dropped out of the workforce, likely for all of the reasons experts are seeing elsewhere, including a lack of child care, fear of COVID-19 or the lure of retirement. And then there’s the argument that invoked by many business leaders and lawmakers: the federal unemployment bonus payment of $300 per week that lasts through Labor Day.
While unemployment is higher in Genesee than the state average, many employers in Genesee County say they still feel hiring pressures.
Still, others in the business community said they are not surprised that a job fair put on by GM attracted hundreds of prospective employees.
“GM is an iconic, Michigan-based company,” said Rich Studley, president and CEO of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. “Leading national and international companies have an advantage.”
That’s not always true for GM, said Jack Crawley, plant communications manager, who said the company also has experienced the difficulties of the job market as it went to social media and other outlets to fill the jobs. But without enough applicants and an urgency to get temporary hires on the job, the company decided to try the two-day in-person event to stir up interest and make the process more personal.
Flint Assembly employs about 5,200 hourly workers who build heavy duty trucks, including the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.
“Demand for trucks is incredibly high right now,” Crawley said. He noted the plant’s round-the-clock production six days a week with a couple of Sundays added every month and the cancellation of the annual summer shutdown. “We’re building as many trucks as we can.”
To do that, the automaker needs 400 temporary part-timers to train for assembly jobs to “let our employees get some time off,” Crawley said.
Another 50 workers are sought for full-time positions paying $16.67 per hour at General Motors Subsystems, the subsidiary that operates in company factories with lower pay tiers and without GM benefits.
The company’s hiring — even for temporary workers — may signal more jobs will be coming to the region since its manufacturing uses parts made by suppliers, said Tyler Rossmaessler, executive director of the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance. That’s a hopeful sign in the community, he said.
Yet while manufacturing is the biggest contributor to the Genesee County economy, it’s only the fourth-largest job sector, behind health care, government & education, and retail.
“Genesee County has a rich history with GM, but we are not the manufacturing town of the 1970s,” Rossmaessler said.
But last week’s job seekers are hoping they’ll be hired to the positions they say have the same allure to them today due to the financial benefits experienced by generations of factory workers before them. However, the pay has changed: Today, the average GM factory worker earns $27.89 per hour, compared to $35.94 in 2008, when adjusted for inflation.
Rachel Temrowski of Rochester was among the crowd that tried to apply on June 16, but was still in line when the job fair closed about 6 p.m., four hours after it was supposed to end. She returned at 7 a.m. the next day after earning the chance to be admitted hours early. Temrowski works at an urgent care, but that was exhausting during the pandemic. Her father spent 42 years at Chrysler, and the Detroit Three represents the pinnacle of manufacturing opportunity, he told her.
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