Friday, May 25, 2012

Chart of the Day


Click to enlarge.

© 2005 Nina Aldin Thune


Oakland County, Michigan

The county's knowledge-based economic initiative, coined "Automation Alley", is one of the largest employment centers for engineering and related occupations in the United States. Oakland County has shared in the recent economic hardships brought on by troubles at General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, although it has fared better than Detroit and Flint, as its economy is more diverse and less reliant on manufacturing jobs. All three automotive companies are major employers within southeast Michigan and have a significant presence within Oakland County.

Automation Alley

Automation Alley promotes regional prosperity through entrepreneurial and exporting assistance, workforce development and technology acceleration.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Civilian Labor Force in Oakland County, MI

6 comments:

Who Struck John said...

The lights are going out, ... and they will not be turned on again in this generation.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Who Struck John,

From your link...

Unless the government gets an unexpected infusion of cash or sees an uptick in its dying tax base, many parts of Highland Park will remain beneath a shroud every night.

That is just incredibly depressing. Sigh.

Mr Slippery said...

What is that line from the Police song, "I don't want to play the part, of a statistic on a government chart". Well, too late for me.

I am part of the down tick in 2006 when my family and I decided to leave the Detroit area for greener pastures.

I sat in meetings with Oakland County IT discussing automation alley. It was mostly marketing hype, though they did roll out a free county wide WiFi network and fiber connecting all municipalities. Not sure if the WiFi network is still free and still operating.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Mr Slippery,

I grew up ina small farming community in Washington. I too moved to greener pastures.

My town was bypassed by a highway project in my youth. It looked a bit like a ghost town when I revisited it during a class reunion.

Check out what happened to my home county during the last recession though. Makes me wonder if there's a survivalist boom.

Mr Slippery said...

Survivalists to the rescue!

Financial panics are great for your hometown. Maybe it will really boom when Europe blows up.

Weird.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Mr Slippery,

The trend is your survivalist friend! D'oh!

Here's another look using civilian labor force.