Health care grows as auto industry slides
Before the end of this year, industry and local political leaders predict, Royal Oak-based Beaumont Hospitals will displace General Motors Corp. as the largest employer in Oakland County — marking the first time in recent history that an automaker hasn’t held the No. 1 spot for all three metropolitan Detroit counties.
But a role reversal with Beaumont looks inevitable, as the No. 1 automaker announced in July it would seek to raise $15 billion in liquidity through a number of measures, including a 20 percent reduction in all costs connected to its 32,000 U.S. salaried workers, by the end of 2008.
Health care and related professions, which can include traditional practices as well as residential and elderly care, psychiatry and substance abuse counseling, accounted for 83,553 jobs in Oakland County for 2006. That’s according to the national County Business Patterns index of data from the U.S. Census Bureau. By comparison, the same professional segments accounted for 73,227 Oakland jobs in 2000.
