Some current numbers. These are direct American employees (assembly, drivetrain, stamping, casting and tooling plants, research and design facilities, U.S. headquarters, testing grounds—does not include part suppliers or dealerships)
Turns out the big three employ about half of what they did before the recession, and the foreign companies are gaining, so my previous anecdotal statistic is no longer valid.
GM - 77,000
Ford - 65,000
Mopar - 36,000
Toyota - 30,000
Honda - 26,000
Nissan - 10,000
Hyundai/Kia - 8,000
Trying to find the German figures, but it’s getting tedious. Looks like BMW is around 8,000 but can’t find Mercedes or Volkswagen.
Anyway, it’s a combined 178,000 American directly employed by the big three vs 74,000 for Americans directly employed by Asian auto manufacturers.
I guess I could say that GM employs more Americans directly than all of the Asian car companies combined. Just no longer true when you add in the Germans since GM employs about half of the people they did 10 years ago.
In 1969 there were 1.5 million UAW members. I think the dragon has been slain. We are now throwing the baby out with the bath water.
My 2005 Nissan Frontier was made in Tennessee, and my 2016 Nissan Murano was made in Mississippi. Some profits no doubt went to Japan, but I’m happy for those working folks in TN and MS that put my cars together.