The closure of a GM factory in Detroit isn’t a backbreaker for the city.

Loss of factory, automaker jobs no hindrance to renewal

DETROIT — General Motors’ planned shutdown of its Detroit-Hamtramck plant would leave only one auto assembly factory in the city known for “putting America on wheels,” but the closure and job losses are not expected to stall Detroit’s comeback since its 2014 bankruptcy exit. Experts say that a more tech-driven and medical industry economy is moving Detroit further from a reliance on manufacturing and that GM’s downsizing in the name of cost-cutting and investment in autonomous and electric vehicles won’t hurt as much as past mass layoffs and plant closings. Detroit once was home to about a dozen massive assembly plants. A Fiat-Chrysler facility on the east side would be the last if GM closes its Detroit-Hamtramck plant. There is less reliance on those jobs and plants to supply tax dollars needed to help pay for city services and fill out Detroit’s operating budget. Detroit will experience some loss of tax revenue from the plant and people working there, said law professor Anthony Sabino of the Tobin College of Business at St. Johns University in New York. Owners of shops and restaurants that catered to those workers will be affected, too. “This will not derail the (city’s) 21st-century renaissance. They are working from a solid foundation. If this had happened prior to the city’s reorganization, it could have been far more harmful,” Sabino said. Detroit was about $12 billion in debt before filing for bankruptcy in 2013. Much of that was erased or restructured, allowing the city to improve services. A 30-year jobs forecast sees manufacturing jobs in Detroit falling from 23,000 three years ago to 16,000 by 2045. Over that same time, professional and technical services, corporate headquarters, administrative, support, waste services and health care jobs are expected to rise. Preliminary figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pegged unemployment in Detroit in September at 7.9 percent. While this is still well above the U.S. rate of 3.7 percent, Detroit’s unemployment has been dropping since January 2014, when it was nearly 18 percent. Detroit’s unemployment rate was 28.9 percent in June 2009.