As Michigan begins its election cycle, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer continues to boast about her state getting 25,000 new auto jobs since she took office. However, the Michigan Capitol Confidential found the actual numbers to be very different from reality.
A fact is that Michigan’s auto job rate significantly varies every month, and a person taking credit for this makes no sense, to begin with. Regardless, it was also discovered that these 25,000 auto jobs Whitmer has been crowing about do not exist.
She commented on Michigan’s monthly jobs report in a statement released by her office last week. She took credit by claiming that “Michigan has announced 25,000 good-paying auto jobs, including 10,000 in 2022 alone,” since she took office in 2019.
This is not the first time Whitmer has given herself credit for the job rate. She took to her Twitter account in early June to boast about this. She tweeted, “I’m thrilled about @Ford’s $2 billion investment to create 3,200 good-paying auto jobs — add this to the nearly 25,000 auto jobs we’ve created! I will keep working with anyone to lead Michigan into a future of mobility and electrification.”
After just a few days, she posted another tweet about the auto jobs in Michigan again. She wrote, “Since I took office, Michigan has added more than 25,000 auto jobs. Thanks to @Ford’s recent investment, we’re adding another 3,000.”
After her loud celebration about Ford’s investment, the motor company announced 3,000 job cuts in early August, saying a “significant” percentage of those cuts would be Michigan jobs. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics data compared January 2019, when Whitmer took office, to April 2022. The results found that Michigan had not gained 25,000 jobs as Whitmer claimed. Instead, it has lost almost 2,000.
After this revelation, other people and media began to check facts to see which claim holds more volume. These researches found that the Democrat governor had been lying to the entire state, and evidence was seen clearly.
Clara Hendrickson, a reporter from Detroit Free Press, also did a fact check and rated that the governor’s claims and tweets have been mostly false. Hendrickson pointed out that employment data does not back up Whitmer’s claims and that thousands of the said auto jobs “do not currently exist.”
The “25,000 new auto jobs” @GovWhitmer keeps talking about don’t exist – and the actual job losses on her watch are starting to pile up. https://t.co/DnbBGMYOXR
— Michigan Freedom Network (@MiFreedomNet) August 24, 2022
According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Michigan is actually down a net total of 1,700 auto jobs since Whitmer took office. Their figures also show that the state lost 5,000 auto jobs in July, dropping 3,700 in vehicle manufacturing and 1,300 in motor vehicle parts manufacturing.
After these revelations, the governor changed her claim on Monday but did not abandon it. Her team wrote, “Since 2019, more than 25,000 projected jobs in the automotive and mobility sector have been announced in Michigan.”
Bobby Leddy, an aide to the governor, also explained the number to the press. He said that Whitmer was only taking credit for job announcements, not jobs worked by human beings. He called the number a “conservative estimate.”
However, her campaign website still mentions the same false claims as one of her greatest accomplishments, as it seems the Governor has nothing else to brag about so far. The website states she has “Created nearly 25,000 auto jobs as part of the biggest manufacturing boom in years, ensuring the future of auto manufacturing will be made in Michigan, by Michigan workers.”
Republican opponent Tudor Dixon also came out to call Whitmer out on her lies. He said, “We’ve lost over 120,000 jobs under Gretchen Whitmer’s watch, including a net loss of 6,000 auto jobs. Michigan put the world on wheels and now Whitmer’s disastrous leadership is driving the auto companies to roll right out of Michigan.”
Michigan GOP Deputy Chief of Staff and Communications Director Gustavo Portela also gave a statement to the press. He said, “Gretchen Whitmer continues to lie about the creation of jobs in Michigan but the reality is she’s lost more jobs than she’s created. It’s not just about the jobs she’s failed to create, it’s the fact that she routinely lies to Michiganders about fixing the roads, about keeping people safe or about wanting to deliver for Michiganders.”