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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.
The Greenville News story is available online: http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/money/business/2014/08/23/south-carolina-losing-icar-graduates-detroit-area/14514569
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