Job Creation

Chevrolet announced today it will offer low cab forward medium-duty trucks in the U.S. in 2016, returning the brand to a growing segment of the commercial vehicle market and expanding choices for fleet and commercial truck customers.

The six new models – Chevrolet 3500, 3500HD, 4500, 4500HD, 5500 and 5500 HD – are based on the Isuzu N-Series, which GM will procure from Isuzu and distribute through Chevrolet dealers.

Ford Motor Company Fund will celebrate the achievements of more than 160 graduating seniors from 10 Detroit-area high schools at its sixth annual Blue Oval Scholarship program. The awards, ranging from $250 to $1,000, will be presented Thursday, June 18 at 5:30 p.m. at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

General Motors will invest $1 billion in its Warren Technical Center and add about 2,600 jobs over the next four years.

"This is an investment in our people who work at the Tech Center because it is positioning the company for long-term growth by enabling new levels of innovation and collaboration," Mark Reuss, GM executive vice president for global product development, said Thursday in Warren. "We will transform this campus into a collaborative workplace of choice for our current team and future talent."

General Motors Co. Monday announced a $174 million investment to its Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kan., where GM CEO Mary Barra gathered with customers, employees and dealers to celebrate the automaker surpassing 500 million vehicles produced globally — the most by any automaker.

General Motors Co. on Thursday said it will create 650 new jobs as it invests $5.4 billion into U.S. plants through 2017, including a total of $783.5 million at three Michigan sites.

GM and UAW executives announced the investments at GM's Pontiac Metal Center, which is getting $124 million in upgrades, including a new press. It will add 15 jobs with the investment. The plant was among those that faced closure around GM's bankruptcy but today has about 490 employees.

General Motors will announce a new round of plant investments Thursday at its Pontiac Metal Center just as an independent report found the company's U.S. manufacturing employment reached its highest level last year since the 2009 bankruptcy.

Thursday's news is expected to detail upgrades at the Pontiac stamping operation, Delta Township assembly plant near Lansing and other locations. This week local officials in Arlington, Tex., voted on incentives for a $1.2 billion expansion of the assembly plant that produces the Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban and GMC Yukon.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich said today that the state doing everything it can to convince Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to produce the next generation Jeep Wrangler in Toledo even though he is opposes "corporate welfare."

"When it comes to Toledo, it's critical for us, the Jeep is critical for us and the opportunity for perhaps for more employment than we have is great," Kasich said today after a speech in Detroit. "We are doing everything we can, we are being as creative as we can."

General Motors Co plans to begin building the Chevrolet Bolt, its all-new $30,000 electric car, in October 2016 at an underused small-car plant north of Detroit, two supplier sources said.

Despite the heavy hype surrounding the car's unveiling last month at the Detroit auto show, the sources said, GM's production target for the Bolt is relatively modest, at about 25,000-30,000 cars a year.

If the new Congress can agree on anything this year, it may well be the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal between the United States and 11 other countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Passions run high when it comes to trade deals these days, and the Obama administration is working hard to sell it to labor unions, which roundly oppose it.

Negotiations over the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement are continuing this week in Washington, but some economists say the talks shouldn’t be limited to traditional trade barriers like tariffs.

According to Market Pulse, among the issues on the agenda are “intellectual property and reform of state-owned firms to establish fair business competition,” as well as bilateral issues, “such as Japan’s proposed exceptional tariffs on some agricultural produce.”