December 12, 2008

Auto bailout, the sequel

So now Treasury and the Bush Administration are recognizing that it's probably not good to be seen as the second coming of Herbert Hoover.

The White House and the Treasury gave strong indications Friday that the U.S. government, at least temporarily, would help prop up the American auto industry.

"Because Congress failed to act, we will stand ready to prevent an imminent failure until Congress reconvenes and acts to address the long-term viability of the industry," Treasury spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin said.

And White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the administration is considering using the Wall Street rescue fund to prevent the USA's strapped carmakers from failing.

I would argue that rather than go through all this trauma, part of the TARP fund should have been used in the first place, but whatever.

How many auto jobs are in your state? Nice chart and map from USA Today. Even Hawai'i has 416 jobs, presumably in dealerships.

Posted by Linkmeister at December 12, 2008 10:57 AM | TrackBack
Comments

416 jobs in dealerships? Nope, not a one of those is an auto dealer. It's 18 in auto parts manufacturing (mean income $29K), 23 in auto wholesaling (mean $59K), and 375 in parts wholesaling (mean $33K).

The map doesn't display the 4552 auto dealership jobs (mean income $51K) in your state.

Hover your cursor over the state on the map to see the category breakdown. Or click on a specific job category shown above the table and map to see the national distribution of that particular category. Not surprisingly, the two wholesaling categories and dealerships are distributed very much like the general population, whereas assembly and parts manufacturing are concentrated in the Rust Belt.

Posted by: N in Seattle at December 12, 2008 12:47 PM

I was in a hurry. ;)

I thought that number was too small to be dealerships, considering the number there are here. I wonder if the 18 in parts manufacturing is dashboard covers. The wholesaling would be Napa and Redline stores, I imagine.

Posted by: Linkmeister at December 12, 2008 01:08 PM