Diversity is key to recovery and fighting unemployment

Published 7:41 am Saturday, April 18, 2009

By Staff
LANSING – In her weekly radio address, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today said that creating all kinds of jobs for all kinds of people is key to fighting unemployment and accelerating Michigan's recovery.
The governor signed legislation earlier in the week extending unemployment benefits for jobless citizens, enabling them to help support their families while seeking employment or training for new careers.
"By supporting our workers today and diversifying our economy for tomorrow, we are moving in a determined fashion day-to-day to shape the next Michigan," Granholm said.
The governor said Michigan is making important strides in diversifying our economy with the announcement of 14 new projects that will generate 7,700 new jobs and $2 billion in new investment in communities across the state, including a brand-new industry taking hold in Michigan with the announcement of four advanced-battery companies investing $1.7 billion in the state, which will put Michigan in prime position to compete for $2 billion in federal recovery grants.
"We are planting our flag firmly in the ground and staking our claim as the advanced-battery capital of the world," Granholm said.
Other projects include a new $146 million film production complex in Allen Park, expansion of a metal stamping company, a powdered milk production facility, as well as tax credits to transform blighted areas in Flint, Grand Rapids, and St. Joseph that will create and attract more jobs.
"This is what diversity looks like," Granholm said, "thousands of new jobs in communities across the state in a variety of industries – from ones in their infancy, like advanced-battery manufacturing, to ones that are hundreds of years old and going strong, like agriculture."
The governor's weekly radio address is released each Friday morning and may be heard on broadcast stations across the state. The address is available on the governor's Web site at (www.michigan.gov/gov) for download, together with a clip of the quote above. The radio address is also available as a podcast on the Web site, as well as on iTunes and vi2a RSS feed for general distribution to personal MP3 players and home computers.
For links to the audio files and text of the governor's address go to http://www.michigan.gov/documents/gov/Gov193Full_275287_7.mp3