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 Saginaw
Valley employers expect to hire at a brisk pace during the second quarter
of 2008, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.
From April to June, 43% of the companies interviewed
plan to hire more employees, while 7% expect to reduce their payrolls,
according to Manpower spokesperson Tom Bovee.
Another 30% expect to maintain their current staff
levels and 20% are not certain of their hiring plans.
“Compared with the first quarter of 2008 when 37% of
companies interviewed intended to add employees, and 3% planned to
reduce staff levels, area hiring levels appear to be stable,” said Bovee.
“Employers are more optimistic about hiring activity as compared to one
year ago, when 27% of companies surveyed planned to increase staff
levels and none expected to cut payrolls.”
For the coming quarter, job prospects appear best in
Construction, Durable Goods Manufacturing, Transportation/Public
Utilities, Wholesale/Retail Trade, Finance/Insurance/Real Estate and
Services.
Employers in Public Administration plan to reduce
staffing levels, while hiring in Non-Durable Goods Manufacturing is
expected to remain unchanged. Employers in Education are unsure of
their staffing plans.
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 In
a landmark deal, Buena Vista Charter Township recently announced it has
purchased the dilapidated Fort Saginaw Mall property and will
immediately begin to restore the site.
"Having the title to the site puts us in
charge of our own destiny," said Buena Vista Township Supervisor Dwayne
Parker. "The Board now will need the ongoing support of the
citizens of Buena Vista to rebuild the area at M-46 and I-75."
The mall site purchase is the result of a
multi-year effort by the Buena Vista Board of Trustees to eradicate
blight at and emanating from the mall, especially since the 2004 closure
of K-Mart, the mall's anchor store. Approximately 34 acres,
including out-lots and the small minority of buildings occupied by
tenants, were purchased. Funds for the site were raised through
bonds issued by the Board, following a unanimous vote in November 2006.
Through a commonly utilized public financing technique, the bonds were
secured by the Buena Vista Charter Township Downtown Development
Authority's future revenue stream.
To assist with the planning and
redevelopment of the site, the Township enlisted planning consultants -
McKenna Associates, which has a 30-year history of providing community
planning services to Michigan communities. The Township has
directed McKenna to pursue the planning process with a series of public
participation events designed to maximize community input in future
design and development of the property.
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 The
MidMichigan Innovation Center (MMIC) is home to a new high-tech company
- Bravo:Smart Web Design. The MMIC
is a private, non-profit organization created to provide
entrepreneurs and start-up companies a supportive and collaborative
environment.
Bravo:Smart is a Web
site services and training provider that helps to increase traffic,
customer retention and usability; create customer-driven marketing and
graphics; and ensure design-architecture flexibility.
 The
company offers training through three one-day classes and 90 days
of hosting and technology support to empower businesses to create a Web
2.0 presence. Up to three employees from each business that registers
will gain the tools, templates, resources and technologies to create and
maintain a successful Web 2.0 presence. Within 90 days, each business
will have a new website that is customer-focused, interactive and
maintained/updated internally.
Bravo:Smart Web Design President Luis Maury said his
company is about "empowering employees to make content updates and
changes to their Web site in a controlled environment. This allows
companies to have immediacy in response to both their customers and
changes in the marketplace.”
Bravo:Smart cites a Gartner Group study
showing that 50 percent of Web sales are lost because visitors cannot
easily find the content, products or services they're looking for on Web
sites. A study published in the International Journal of Human-Computer
Interaction found that $25 billion in potential online sales are lost
due to Web performance issues.
“Today's online presence needs to do more
for the customer," said Ken Kousky, Dow entrepreneur-in-residence at
Saginaw Valley State University. "Businesses are seeing an ever
increasing bottom-line need to provide online services and an
environment that supports an online community."
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