ROANOKE TIMES Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times DATE: Wednesday, February 28, 1996 TAG: 9602280049 SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO DATELINE: DETROIT SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
After bypassing virtually an entire generation of workers, the U.S. auto industry is gearing up to hire as many as 250,000 new employees in the next several years, according to a study to be released today by the University of Michigan.
The study says the hiring is prompted by a huge ``retirement bubble,'' an unprecedented exodus of assembly line workers who entered auto factories in the 1960s.
The retirees, finishing 30-year careers, were hired when the manufacturing sector emphasized brawn over brains. Their replacements will enter an information-based economy that places a premium on technical skills, flexibility, and an ability to think and solve problems.
The study says that in the next eight years, about 240,000 workers at General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. are expected to retire. The figures do not take into account hiring that would be done in the huge auto-supplier industry, consisting of thousands of companies that collectively employ far more than the Big Three.
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