DETROIT – The Help Wanted signs were out across Detroit, and Mayor Mike Duggan says there are no longer roadblocks for Detroiters to get jobs. Federal tax dollars are funding educational programs for those who want jobs but may not have the proper skills.
Detroit has long struggled with high unemployment rates, often because residents don’t have the training or the skills to work many jobs.
But on Monday (Nov. 13), Duggan boasted that it’s turning around thanks to a program called Detroit At Work, funded by Washington, and it’s putting $100 million behind the program, which the mayor says you will hear a lot about.
The city of Detroit now boasts 270,000 residents working in the city. A number well above what it’s seen in more than a decade, says Duggan.
“It’s what happens when Motor City Match starts 165 new companies in this city, and we pull plywood storefront after storefront in neighborhoods across the city,” said Duggan.
The mayor points to many jobs moving into Detroit, from the expanded Stellantis plants to GM’s Plant Zero and its suppliers building EVs, Ford’s engineering center in Corktown, and Amazon putting in a massive warehouse.
But he says there is more opportunity out there to be had. Currently, 7,000 job openings are just crying out for hands to work them.
“If you say, ‘Oh no, I can’t get them, I don’t even have a high school degree,’ we have GED programs, and we will pay you to take your high school classes so you can get them,” Duggan said. “You say I can’t take high school classes because I don’t read well enough, that’s OK, we have literacy programs and we’ll pay you to do to the literacy clauses to open up those doors.”
Henry Ford Hospital already has many jobs using the Detroit at Work program.
Detroiter Vanciel Conrad didn’t finish her college degree and worked in banking and manufacturing before landing a job in the behavioral health clinic, and she is already looking to move up.
“I had two job interviews with Henry Ford in the last week and effectively two job offers, and I have another one hopefully sometime soon, so I’m just happy to be home and find someplace where I can grow,” said Conrad.
Duggan says he intends to make it so you hear about Detroit At Work so much you get sick of it, but it’s because it is that important to fill the jobs and get Detroiters working them.
