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US auto workers seek to retrain for scarce new jobs
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-03 15:52

50 Job seekers For Every Job

The scale of Michigan's task is daunting.

The No Worker Left Behind program's "talent bank" recently had 1 million resumes online with about 18,000 vacant jobs posted, Levin said. That means more than 50 workers for every available job.

US auto workers seek to retrain for scarce new jobs
An old vehicle sits on a Ford dealership lot advertising the governments "cash for clunkers" program in Encinitas, California August 2, 2009. [Agencies]

"We have to upskill our entire state in order to fill the jobs of the future," he said.

Ken Stahovec, 46, spent 23 years working as a designer and project engineer for various auto suppliers and automakers, before losing his job in July 2008. He is now working toward an associate degree in renewable energy technology.

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"Whenever a green job is posted, a zillion people go after it," he said. "Competition will be fierce, but I just have to keep plugging away at it."

People like Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero ask where jobs will come from for retrained workers, adding he was disappointed when Obama said some manufacturing jobs were lost forever.

"What concerns me is when I hear people talking about manufacturing in the past tense," Bernero said. "If we want wind turbines, someone here should manufacture them."

"I worry all we're doing with retraining is giving people a degree and a bus ticket out of Michigan," he added.

Bill Bryce of the workers' rights group Jobs With Justice said retraining people for jobs that do not exist in Michigan was mere folly.

"The bottom line is that without an expanding economy, a lot of this is just utopian fantasy," he said.

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