MICHIGAN ADVANTAGE BLOG
Under the weight of all of the rough economic news of late, many people miss that good jobs news is happening here in Michigan. Actions over the past couple of weeks give ample insight on where our future jobs will come from.
On Tuesday came announcements of MEGA deals to bring new jobs here from a Canadian company and another that has grown here. A new agreement made the Thursday before will bring jobs here from Tennessee. All of the jobs from these developments grow from Michigan's core strengths in research, development and new technologies.
Gov. Granholm, at the auto show in Detroit last week, signed an agreement with the federal Dept. of Energy that will create an installation of the famed Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Michigan. From its earliest days during World War II outside of Knoxville, Tenn., ORNL has been a center of strategic scientific research by the U.S. government. They will create a new center for alternative energy research in cooperation with the nation's auto industry, both auto makers and auto suppliers. The facility will be sited in the Shelby Twp. auto R&D center being vacated by Delphi.
From Canada comes NxtGen Emission Controls, the clean diesel technology developer, now considering a new administration and manufacturing center in Wixom. Arbor Networks, a global computer network security provider with facilities in Beijing and London, chose to expand its R&D operations in Ann Arbor rather than a competing site in Massachusetts where it is headquartered.
Taken together these new job creating developments illustrate Michigan's potential. We offer much to those companies that rely on highly-skilled, hard-working people in a tech-savvy culture. Some of it builds on our automotive legacy and some on the R&D assets in our industries and universities. All of them say very loudly that there is mother-lode of talent to be tapped in Michigan.