General Electric ramps up hiring at Ann Arbor area tech center
General Electric continues to hire new workers at an information technology center the company opened in 2009 at the former Visteon Village complex in Van Buren Township, Bloomberg reported.
General Electric is expanding hiring at its tech center at the Grace Lake Corporate Center in Van Buren Township, a facility formerly known as Visteon Village.
File photo | AnnArbor.com
Bloomberg said GE already has 660 workers and will eventually have 1,100. An GE spokeswoman confirmed those details for AnnArbor.com.
GE has described the Van Buren Township center as an example of its commitment to bringing previously outsourced jobs back to America.
The GE center, which services several units of the company, is conducting complex IT work that often requires hiring workers with many years of experience in business intelligence systems.
In its recruiting efforts, GE has actively marketed the tech center as being located in the Ann Arbor area.
Charlene Begley, GE's chief information technology officer, told Bloomberg that the IT center represents a "chance to create a site and cherry-pick the talent that all of GE needs -- there’s something magic there.”
Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.
Comments
Dog Guy
Fri, Aug 12, 2011 : 3:43 a.m.
GE is hiring people to drive the half of the Chevrolet Vote production it is buying.
Joe Hood
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 9:44 p.m.
Can't argue about more jobs but the sustainability of the location doesn't exist; it's half way between here and Detroit, which kind of quality of life is GE selling to future workers?
63Townie
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 7:44 p.m.
"Ann Arbor area"? I used to be one of the "Village People" and never considered it to be part of the Ann Arbor area.
CynicA2
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 6:58 p.m.
Puffery is the stock in trade of this silly rag. Like referring to the Ann Arbor "region". Piddly little Ann Arbor is no more a "region" than is my back yard. Hell, the whole county barely has 350,000 folks in it. Southeast Michigan, and the several counties it encompasses might legitimately be called a region, or the even more broadly, the Northeastern United States is a region. Ann Arbor is an "area" at best.
cinnabar7071
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 4:40 p.m.
See what happens when a company doesn't pay taxes. JOBS!
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 8:14 p.m.
Well then let's let middle class people not pay taxes and we can do well also. D'oh!
Belgium
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 5:13 p.m.
For the amount of taxes they didn't pay, as well as the amount they received back ($2.3B if I remember correctly) in incentives, could have created 100 times the number of jobs repairing our roads and other infrastructure. The money could have been used as tax incentives to improve energy efficiency, fund alternate energy research or pay for people to make sure our food is safe from contagions or a million other better applications than creating 600 jobs and paying their CEO a couple hundred million more in benefits. But I assume you were being sarcastic. Which would be funnier if it wasn't so freaking sad.
Linda Peck
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 3:03 p.m.
The fact is not all outsourced work is quality work. Sometimes it costs more to send it out. Hurray for more jobs here in Michigan!
Barb
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 2:31 p.m.
@Cash, you're talking apples and oranges. This is about potential jobs, which can help the Ann Arbor area - or any place within commuting distance. When you're talking about crime, I think it helps for a media source to be as specific as possible about location.
A2comments
Wed, Aug 10, 2011 : 11:58 a.m.
Oy, not Oye....
Barb
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 4:08 p.m.
Good for you - keep trying! If at first you don't succeed...
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 3:42 p.m.
Yep that's been my point .....I'm trying to stay ON point.
Barb
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 3:02 p.m.
No, dear - that's *your* point. Nothing like generalizing. :) The real point (at least in this case) is to emphasize who this may benefit, which is the Ann Arbor area.
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 2:52 p.m.
Barb READ the headline. You totally miss the point that AA.com makes GOOD news Ann Arbor-centric and bad news specific to the town it happened in. Oye!
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:43 p.m.
Cherry picking which news you want to claim as "Ann Arbor" and which news you want to point out is in Ypsilanti or Belleville or Romulus is wrong....I mean when a crime happens in Ypsi do we see the headline "Man shot in Ann Arbor area?"
Moose Miester
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:39 p.m.
Yes, the economy is in desperate shape overall and looking worse by the day. Information Technology jobs, on the other hand, are hard to fill. There are very few qualified candidates. Why? Because the mainstream press insisted for yeras that all the I.T. jobs were going to India, so we saw a sharp drop in computer science enrollment. You still hear the wailing about outsourcing I.T. jobs coming from the press. The result is that a career in I.T. pays very well, and assures you of employment. So when the press tells you that the Grace Lake Complex is in Ann Arbor, you should believe them, right? It gets better. "GE has described the Van Buren Township center as an example of its commitment to bringing previously outsourced jobs back to America." If you believe this, then please call me, I have some great deals for you. <a href="http://www.mooseworldwidedigital.com" rel='nofollow'>www.mooseworldwidedigital.com</a>
Barb
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:36 p.m.
I think what you are arguing, Cash, is semantics. That location can definitely be considered part of that Ann Arbor area, IMHO. Many people see Ann Arbor as almost its own metro area, surrounded/supported by such communities as Ypsi, Belleville, Saline, Dexter, etc...
Barb
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 3:24 p.m.
Wow, OK. I'll go stand on the street corner at Main and Liberty on Friday and quiz people about their mailing address. Or I can just let you continue believing the no one from the communities east of A2 ever venture into A2. Whatevs.
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 2:51 p.m.
Do you know they are Belleville folks? I know I live in Superior aka Snyder Township and I don't ever go to Ann Arbor. Ever! I go to Canton area. And Wayne County is not Ann Arbor-centric as yo uwould believe. So if Ann Arbor people come to Depot Town to eat....you would think that makes Ann Arbor an Ypsilanti area community. Okee dokie.
Barb
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 2:34 p.m.
How do these communities support Ann Arbor? Uh, by eating at our restaurants, shopping on Main Street, etc.? What, you think all those cars coming in and using up parking on Friday nights are just Ann Arbor folks?
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:54 p.m.
How do Belleville Romulus and Wayne "support Ann Arbor"? You and someone else in Ann Arbor may see it that way but I'm betting residents of those cities wouldn't agree...sure know that I don't!
Barb
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:48 p.m.
Except you can't - annarbor.com doesn't allow you to edit or withdraw posts. ;)
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:46 p.m.
The next crime article that reports an incident in Ypsi and says instead that it happened in the Ann Arbor area...I'll withdraw my post.
EyeHeartA2
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:28 p.m.
General Electric ramps up hiring at Ypsilanti area tech center General Electric ramps up hiring at West Willow area tech center General Electric ramps up hiring at Belville area tech center Would all be a little more accurate. BTW, is anybody going to the Ann Arbor Heritage Festival (formarly know as the Ypsilanti area heritigate festival) I'm just figuring that is something else nice going on in Ypsi that we can claim for our own. I also like Ann Arbor Depot Town.
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 3:45 p.m.
Catching a flight this afternoon at Detroit ....er...Metro Ann Arbor Airport ...
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 12:50 p.m.
I'm also curious how this is construed to be an "Ann Arbor area tech center". It is in another county and is never considered "Ann Arbor area" in news terms here before. It would be Wayne area or Belleville area or Romulus area....but not Ann Arbor area.
Alex
Wed, Aug 10, 2011 : 8:18 p.m.
I think if you're recruiting nationally, people aren't going to know Wayne or Belleville (my hometown). I now live in NYC and people seem only to know Detroit and Ann Arbor.
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:47 p.m.
Chelsea seems to be identified as"Chelsea" on this blog site. And it's even in the same county.
perfectly lubricated weather vane
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:43 p.m.
Chelsea is about as far west of Ann Arbor as the General Electric facility is east. Do we object to referring to Chelsea as "Ann Arbor area"?
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:09 p.m.
I have no problem with wher they are located....it is a great location. However the headline here says "Ann Arbor area tech center" and that's not correct.
grye
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:05 p.m.
It would have been nice if they had been closer to Ann Arbor, however a big empty facility existed after Visteon moved out.
pseudo
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 12:44 p.m.
Is doing...by the hundreds Cash, by the hundreds. If they ran the story saying it was done, then it would be past and no hiring.
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 12:51 p.m.
the article says "planning to hire" not hiring.
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 12:36 p.m.
To paraphrase the late Nascar great, Dale Earnhardt , "Don't tell me what you're gonna do; tell me what you did." There is at least one article per week telling us (or quoting other media) that someone is PLANNING on hiring. Please stop and let us know when they DO something.
pseudo
Wed, Aug 10, 2011 : 11:53 a.m.
It also says its a 2 year old technical center with 660 employees in it. By the hundreds Cash - they are hiring very sophisticated IT people and paying sophisticated IT salaries by the hundreds.
Cash
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:11 p.m.
So I am the only one who wonders when corporations get huge tax incentives, if they ever fulfill their promise. Sigh.
grye
Tue, Aug 9, 2011 : 1:02 p.m.
The fact that they have already employed 660 people shows what they have already done. Don't be so skeptical.