Plant Closing

[Guest akinsey]

The manufacturing facility I work at is closing, an ongoing trend in this area, and I am looking to possibly go to someplace in the Midwest, mainly St. Louis or somewhere in Indiana. Does anybody know of any good headhunters for Engineering/Automation? Thanks, Adam

[gravitar]

Don't want to take this too far "off topic" but what do you guys think of the outlook for manufacturing in the midwest? And to the original topic starter, how closely is your area's economy tied to the domestic automakers?

[Guest akinsey]

I can't speak for the entire midwest, but as for Southern Illinois, things are not too good right now. Along with this facility shutting down another manufacturing company (different industry) about 40 miles from here shut down at the end of the year laying off about 1,000 people. At this facility we make CDs and DVDs so not really tied into automakers, but this is a very competitive industry and a lot of the manufacturing jobs are leaving for the same reason as everything else, cost.

[Big Country]

Post your resume on Monster.com and I will guarantee that you will hear from a head hunter or two within two weeks. I did and they call me all the time now, most are not feasable but there is always work out there if one is willing to do it.

[jstolaruk]

For the autos, seems to be little pockets of activity. Ford announced a billion bucks to be spent upgrading facilities in SE Michigan. Daimler Chrysler is actively getting quotes for machinery to equip a possible 3 new engine plants for their Phoenix eninge and at least one new transmission plant; possible sites are Kenosha WI, Toledo Ohio, Kokomo IN, Toledo OH, Dundee MI, Trenton MI. Haven't heard much on the GM side though when the economy slows down is when the autos start spending money on equipment and tools to be ready for the car sales recovery. About 9 months ago, we were very slow and now we've got a nice healthy back log. YMMV.