Howes: International Automaker Investment in U.S. Helps Drive Industry and Local Economies

Washington DC November 4, 2005; The AIADA newsletter reported that Detroit News columnist Daniel Howes insists in today’s column entitled, “GM, Ford Aside, U.S. Auto Industry Is Doing Just Fine,” that the auto industry in the U.S. is not in decline. Rather, “Its fastest growing chunk is booming and shifting the industry’s employment base south.”

What’s more, government statistics show that the industry overall “is boosting its productivity faster than the nation’s gross domestic product is growing.”

According to the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor, international nameplate automakers, many of which have plants located throughout the South, are the fastest growing part of the U.S. auto industry and have the potential to account for nearly 40 percent of the nation’s 1 million automotive jobs by 2010.

CAR Vice President Sean McAlinden says, internationals “have been the only auto companies growing employment in the U.S. motor vehicle industry since 2000.” McAlinden estimates that internationals will likely add another eight to 10 assembly and parts plants in the United States over the next few years.

Currently, it is estimated that internationals employ roughly 93,000 Americans at manufacturing facilities and produce nearly 5 million cars and trucks each year. Sales of international nameplate autos provide jobs for over 500,000 Americans at more than 11,000 international auto dealerships. For more information on international automakers’ investment in the U.S., see AIADA’s “At Home in America” poster.