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4A Sunday, December 2, 2018
The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
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Salaried workers
beware: GM cuts
a warning for all
BY TOM KRISHER
AND JOSH B0AK
Associated Press
DETROIT — For gen
erations, the career path
for smart kids around
Detroit was to get an engi
neering or business degree
and get hired by an auto
maker or parts supplier.
If you worked hard and
didn’t screw up, you had
a job for life with enough
money to raise a family,
take vacations and buy a
weekend cottage in north
ern Michigan.
Now that once-reli-
able route to prosperity
appears to be vanishing,
as evidenced by General
Motors’ announcement
this week that it plans to
shed 8,000 white-collar
jobs on top of 6,000 blue-
collar ones.
It was a humbling warn
ing that in this era of rapid
and disruptive technologi
cal change, those with
a college education are
not necessarily insulated
from the kind of layoffs
factory workers know all
too well.
The cutbacks reflect a
transformation underway
in both the auto indus
try and the broader U.S.
economy, with nearly
every type of business
becoming oriented toward
computers, software and
automation.
“This is a big mega-trend
pervading the whole econ
omy,” said Mark Muro, a
senior fellow at the Brook
ings Institution who has
researched changes being
caused by the digital age.
Cities that suffered
manufacturing job losses
decades ago are now grap
pling with the problem of
fewer opportunities for
white-collar employees
such as managers, lawyers,
bankers and accountants.
Since 2008, The Associated
Press found, roughly a third
of major U.S. metro areas
have lost a greater percent-
I Inside
How layoffs could have
local effects, 1D
age of white-collar jobs
than blue-collar jobs. It’s a
phenomenon seen in such
places as Wichita, Kansas,
with its downsized aircraft
industry, and towns in Wis
consin that have lost auto,
industrial machinery or
furniture-making jobs.
In GM’s case, the jobs
that will be shed through
buyouts and layoffs are
held largely by people who
are experts in the inter
nal combustion engine
— mechanical engineers
and others who spent their
careers working on fuel
injectors, transmissions,
exhaust systems and other
components that won’t be
needed for the electric
cars that eventually will
drive themselves. GM, the
nation’s largest automaker,
says those vehicles are its
future.
“We’re talking about
high-skilled people who
have made a substantial
investment in their educa
tion,” said Marina Whit
man, a retired professor
of business and public
policy at the University
of Michigan and a for
mer GM chief economist.
“The transitions can be
extremely painful for a
subset of people.”
GM is still hiring white-
collar employees, but the
new jobs are for those who
can write software code,
design laser sensors or
develop batteries and other
devices for future vehicles.
Those who are being
thrown out of work might
have to learn new skills if
they hope to find new jobs,
underscoring what Whit
man said is another truism
about the new economy:
“You’ve got to regard edu
cation as a lifetime process.
You probably are going to
have multiple jobs in your
lifetime. You’ve got to stay
flexible.”
Photos by AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Beth Oropeza, co-director of Good News at Noon, talks Thursday, Nov. 29 about the renovation of a second building.
Thomas said. “.. There is a
great need for truly afford
able housing that is under
$1,000 (a month) and as we
try to grow into the afford
able housing arena, we see
that certain things are being
pushed out of the city, for
better or for worse. We have
to be mindful of that as we
try to consider how can we
provide those services.”
Thomas said she hopes
stakeholders in the commu
nity can continue to work
together to address home
lessness, and that develop
ment and compassion for
those in need don’t have to
be mutually exclusive.
“We all want Gainesville
to be even better and an even
stronger community, and we
do realize that things have to
change as the city grows, as
the county grows,” Thomas
said. “We do want to always
have our leadership be mind
ful that there is a place for
everyone here, whether they
are more affluent or those
in need, and we do have to
strike a balance of them all
for our community to truly
be the best that it can be.”
HOMELESS
■ Continued from 1A
well as aggressive panhan
dling, have not directly
affected My Sister’s Place
yet. Police officers some
times refer people to the
shelter so they have a place
to stay, Thomas said.
2016 estimates put the
city’s homeless population at
about 200 to 400 at any given
time.
Sgt. Kevin Holbrook
with the Gainesville Police
Department said as of Fri
day afternoon, police had
not issued any citations for
urban camping or aggressive
solicitation since those ordi
nances had passed. Police
stay in contact with nonprof
its about how to help people
who are homeless, Holbrook
said.
Rosa Hightower, lead
house monitor for the Sal
vation Army, said police
have also brought people
by that shelter. Ever since
the homeless camp under
the Queen City Bridge was
cleared in 2016, Hightower
said the homeless population
has been more dispersed as
people settle into smaller
camps or live separately.
The Salvation Army can
accommodate nine men and
five women and also has five
family units. Hightower said
there is a shortage of shelter
space in the area, especially
for women and children. The
Salvation Army also sees a
lot of people from Gwinnett
County, where there are not
as many resources available,
she said.
“(Homeless people) will
find an empty building,
they’ll find a little crack, a
little safe place for them....
There’s not a lot of places for
these people to come out of
the elements,” Hightower
said.
Ken Pullen, director of
the Gainesville City Baptist
Rescue Mission, said that
the mission had also not seen
direct effects of the new
rules yet. The mission is in
the city’s Midtown Overlay
Zone, where officials just
banned 30 new uses, includ
ing shelters, crisis centers,
pawn shops and coin laun
dries. The mission, like all
the existing buildings and
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V gainesvilletimes.com The heipfui piece.
Good News at Noon’s recently renovated second building
can house 12 men overnight.
nonprofits in the area, is
being grandfathered in and
can stay.
Pullen said he likes the
Midtown Greenway and is
anticipating news about what
might happen at the former
Hall County Jail site, which
officials have said they are
recruiting developers to
build on. He hopes that with
changes in midtown come
some new affordable hous
ing so it is less difficult for
people to transition out of
homelessness.
“It’s already hard for
them. ... My guys can stay
here for up to a year, and it’s
expensive to move out,” he
said.
The men he works with
often have multiple jobs but
still cannot afford a place to
live because of the shortage
of affordable housing, he
said.
Good News at Noon on
Davis Street recently com
pleted renovations on the
former Good News Clinics
building to convert it to a
shelter where 12 men can
sleep each night. Co-direc-
tor Beth Oropeza said Good
News has also not yet seen
the effects of the new ordi
nances and has been con
tinuing work as usual.
Men arrive at the shel
ter every evening between
5:30 and 6:30 p.m. and Good
News has not yet had to
turn someone away due to
a lack of space, Oropeza
said. The men have to leave
in the morning so they can
consider their “next steps”
and look for employment or
housing, she said.
Oropeza said she has
noticed redevelopment in
the midtown and downtown
area, especially with new
housing.
“It’s just been built up and
cleaned up,” she said.
Thomas said she has also
seen the redevelopment in
midtown Gainesville and is
watching the progress to see
how it could affect the peo
ple My Sister’s Place serves.
“We are keeping an eye
(on redevelopment), because
we do see a great need for
additional resources out
side of immediate housing,”
7:30 PM FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2018
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
OF GAINESVILLE
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