Michigan's bid for Amazon HQ2 helped by ability to attract young talent, state expert says

Jeff Mason, president and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., said Michigan is on course to attract and retain more talent, which is likely to help in the state's bid for Amazon's second headquarters.

"Amazon HQ2 shined light on the amount of talent that is needed and the supply we're producing. We've got a gap," Mason said Thursday in a panel discussion at the Detroit Economic Club.

But he said the good news is that Michigan is once again becoming an attractive place for young people to work, thanks in part to Detroit's resurgence.

He told the luncheon group at the Motor City Casino that Michigan is leading in the Midwest when it comes to attracting 25- to 34-year-old workers.

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"We are now importing that talent back to the state of Michigan," Mason said.

Mason said the state is producing a fair amount of talent, as well, which is what Amazon and others need.

Over the long run, though, he said more skilled job applicants likely will need to be attracted from Windsor, which is part of Detroit's pitch for Amazon's second headquarters outside of Seattle.

And he said Michigan will need to tap into some talent from surrounding states, such as Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, to fill the up to 50,000 jobs that Amazon projects as part of the project over a few years.

Mason told the Free Press Thursday that the expectation is that Michigan will find out if it makes the next Amazon cut along with perhaps a dozen or more other bids sometime before April.

Overall, the state is back on track and on a far healthier footing than a few years ago, the panelists told the meeting of the Detroit Economic Club.

Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, interim associate director and senior economist at the University of Michigan Energy Institute, said the state has tremendous assets — including physical, financial and people — to make headway in the mobility sector, including self-driving vehicles.

She noted that the state has had incredible business leaders for a long time.

"We've peaked out in terms of auto sales," said Hughes-Cromwick, a former chief global economist at Ford Motor Co.

But she said the auto industry is not seeing signs that would contribute to another downturn now. Signals of trouble ahead, she said, would include major policy mistakes, oil price shocks and what she called "wicked errors in optimism."

"I don't see those right now," she said.

She said Michigan needs to continue its push to be globally competitive and drive hard to be a leader in the mobility sector to create jobs.

"We love the plants. We love the workers. We love all of that," she said.

But going forward, she added, it's important that Michigan embrace the digital economy.

"We're the creators of mobility," she said.

Most Michigan business leaders indicated that Michigan is business-friendly, a "great place" to grow a business, and a great state for young professionals, according to the Michigan Economic Outlook Survey, prepared by the Ann Arbor-based Baker Strategy Group.

The outlook — released Thursday at the meeting for the Detroit Economic Club — showed that business optimism is at a six-year high. About 82% of the Michigan business leaders surveyed expect growth in the next 12 months and the next three years.

That compares with 67% expecting a positive outlook in the next year in the 2013 survey, and 70% expecting a good outlook in three years as part of the 2013 survey.

But growth in the state is expected to slow down. Only 54% of those surveyed this year said they expect to hire more people, compared with 59% in the 2017 survey.

Contact Susan Tompor: stompor@freepress.com or 313-222-8876. Follow Susan on Twitter @Tompor.