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CEO: Manufacturing Jobs Steadily Increasing Output, Employment

TROY (WWJ) - The jobs numbers came out and no one was happy: preliminarily, 18,000 new jobs were created in the country last month - the fewest new monthly jobs in more than a year.

Carl Camden is president and CEO of staffing solutions company Kelly Services in Troy and he says there's no use in putting lipstick on the pig, but some parts (of the pig) look better than others.

"The Midwest is, right now, the best performing part of the country and Michigan in particular is doing, you know, seeing an increase in demand for our services," Camden said.

He said manufacturing has been slowly and steadily increasing in output and employment. But the Midwest and "old-school jobs" are not the only source of promise.

"Right now, if you're a scientist, an engineer and an upper-end IT professional, there's a wide open job market and in many parts of the country we have as many as two to three job openings for every qualified candidate we can find," Camden said.

But without any college credentials, job seekers are entering a tough, uphill battle.

"You look at the unemployment rate for those without a college degree and compare it to those with a college degree and its about twice as high. And it's very difficult to find a job now if you don't have a college degree and in particular, if you don't have a technically oriented college degree," Camden said.

Still, the Kelly Services CEO and President said the jobs created last month are truly paltry - particularly in light of the 250,000 that was expected. Additionally, it follows on low numbers from May (25,000). In the previous three months the economy added an average of 215,000 jobs per month.

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