Governor Jennifer Granholm has announced that the U.S. Department of Labor has awarded a partnership of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio a total of $4 million in Recovery Act funds to research the workforce requirements of the future restructured auto industry and identify potential employment opportunities for dislocated auto workers and other at-risk workers in the green economy.

The tri-state consortium brings together the states hit hardest by the auto industry restructuring due to the global economy and demand for energy efficient vehicles. The project research will assess the workforce and skill needs of current and future jobs in the evolving auto sector, and inform Michigan’s workforce of potential career opportunities in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries.

“Automobile manufacturing is changing to meet the worldwide demand for more energy-efficient transportation, and we must make sure Michigan workers are prepared for the auto jobs of the future,” said Granholm. “These dollars will help us determine the precise skills our workers must possess to meet the needs of the 21st century auto industry.”

The consortium partners the Michigan Labor Market Information & Strategic Initiatives (LMI) in the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth, with labor market information agencies in Ohio and Indiana. The project will also be utilizing key strategic partners from each state’s research, economic development, energy and workforce agencies.

LMI will use the improvement grants for the collection and analysis of workforce data on the impact of the transformation of the auto industry and to identify potential transferable skills and career pathways between the auto and green sectors.

The project will focus on:

• Auto Industry Transformation – including the identification of new skills and requirements in a restructured auto industry
• Auto Supply Chain Transformation – examining and understanding the new demands and skills within this industry
• Alternative Career Pathways – including using jobs in the green economy to help identify alternative career pathways for dislocated auto and auto parts workers; and
• Skills Gap Analysis – identifying the current and projected skill gaps of the auto workforce, as well as the necessary training needed to transition into green occupations and other high demand sector.

“This information will be helpful to state workforce agencies in developing effective strategies to help successfully transition workers into new careers within energy efficiency and renewable energy fields. By partnering with our neighboring states also impacted by the auto industry we will have key information that will have a regional, multi-state, and national impact,” said DELEG Director Stanley “Skip” Pruss.

For more information about DELEG’s Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives, please visit www.michigan.gov/lmi