Though burdened with an unemployment rate of 11 percent, the city of Detroit faces a shortage of skilled laborers due to shifts in the local labor force. Tremendous declines in manufacturing jobs have fueled the trend, as employers have proved increasingly reluctant to provide on the job training. With $8 billion in potential infrastructure investments expected to generate 25,000 jobs, city officials have voiced concern as to whether they will have the talent to fill the positions. Public sector initiatives to provide job training have yielded poor results.
See "Even when jobs return, Detroit?s workers fall short on skills", Nick Carey, Reuters, August 1, 2013