High-Tech Mix May Help County Dodge Recession

DETROIT-Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson recently unveiled a revealingnew study conducted by the Anderson Economic Group, Lansing, a division of BBK, Ltd., which gives credence to his contention the county is on a path to becoming more recession-proof. The study found, among other things, that Oakland County’s reliance on the manufacturing sector has declined over the last 10 years while the service sector has become more dominant.

For example, a decade ago manufacturing accounted for 19.6% of county employment, while today it accounts for only 16.9% with most of the decline in the automobile industry. At the same time, service sector employment has risen from 33.1% in 1988 to 40.2% in 1997.

Noting Oakland County’s manufacturing firms represent high wage, high skills and high output jobs, researchers concluded that in many cases these jobs are better described as “high-tech” than anything else, something that previous studies have failed to recognize. When these high-tech manufacturing jobs are properly counted as high-tech, Oakland County boasts a high-tech workforce of 167,568 workers, which is the third-highest number among leading counties in the US, surpassing all but Santa Clara (Silicon Valley) and Middlesex (Route 128) counties.