Saturday, June 4, 2005
Can the Midwest ward off a Rust Belt slump?
DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., the nation's two biggest automakers, ordered fresh production cutbacks this week after they again lost business and valuable market share to Asian rivals in May. Some of their key suppliers have seen orders dwindle so much they've had to declare bankruptcy.
Add to that Friday's news of fewer jobs in the U.S. manufacturing sector as a whole, and it raises a disturbing question: Could the Midwest be falling back into the Rust Belt malaise of the early 1980s, when Michigan's unemployment rate topped 16 percent and GM, the world's largest automaker, saw its market share tumble nearly 10 percentage points?
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