Wow! I didn't know that many people on here work in the tire industry. You two and Bandaman works for Bandag. I work in that industry also but not for one of the new tire manufacturers. I work for Wonderland Tire Co in the Grand Rapids, MI area. We have 5 locations and an AcuTread mold cure truck tire retread plant.
www.acutread.com I started out when I was 15 cleaning up the shop at one of the retail/commercial locations after work and I am still with the company after almost 21 years. I have a wide job description at this point. I have had mostly a desk job for the last 6-8 years and I am currently the Purchasing, Projects, & IT Manager but there are MANY other things I do also.
Unfortunately, I don't make anywhere
close to what you guys are talking about and was just informed last week that everyone in the company is being cut down to a max of 40 hours a week. I have NEVER had that happen to me before. I would REALLY like to get into a more computer-related, IT-type field because I have a fair amount of self-learned knowledge in that already but most any place that would hire for that type of job would require a degree of some sort I am sure.
Overall, the Michigan job market sucks ass right now. My girlfriend was let go from her accounts payables job in the middle of September after being there for 6 years and she is still unemployed. I am not positive but I think Michigan has the highest or at least one of the highest unemployment rates in the country right now.