Michigan’s automotive dominance was the major finding recently when the Greenville (S.C.) News investigated Clemson University’s graduate school of automotive engineering.
After an examination of data gained through the state’s freedom of information law, the newspaper reported significantly more graduates headed north to Michigan than found jobs in South Carolina. Nearly one in three graduates (32 percent) took choice jobs here while 22 percent stayed to work in the Palmetto State.
One 2011 master’s graduate, Raunak Chaudhary, now works in Dearborn at Ford in product development after passing on a manufacturing position at an S.C. auto supplier. The 28-year-old ergonomics engineer, a native of India, told the News he is open to a move back, “But there’s not a lot of product development down in the South. It’s mostly manufacturing.”
The piece featured Jay Baron, executive director of the Ann Arbor automotive think tank, Center for Automotive Research, pointing out that Michigan, with 370 R&D centers, is the heart of automotive R&D in North America.
South Carolina is hardly alone in its predicament. Michigan’s concentration of R&D investment and talent constitutes three-quarters of this activity in North America – more than all other states and provinces combined. Also, our state ranks first in the US in concentration of industrial designers and engineers, R&D professionals and skilled-trade workers.
Source: MEDC
Click here to be introduced to the MEDC