How Likely Is It Foxconn Will Create 10,000 Jobs?
Not very, Jeramey Jannene predicts in interview with WTMJ radio.
Foxconn Jet. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Speculation that Foxconn could build a mega-plant in Wisconsin really started to heat up after the company plane landed at Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport, which was first reported by Urban Milwaukee’s Jeramey Jannene. His story also noted that the village boards of Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant were holding closed-door meetings to discuss “a potential future development project in Racine County” that sounded like it was about Foxconn.
Which led to an interview with John Mercure and WTMJ radio (audio below) to discuss the situation. “How likely do you believe it is that Foxconn and 10,000 jobs could come to Wisconsin?” Mercure asked.
“Based on Foxconn’s past activities, it seems quite unlikely,” Jannene said. “They made a lot of promises in the state of Pennsylvania and never delivered. Foxconn definitely has a pattern. There’s been similar things that have happened in Vietnam and India.”
And even should a deal be forged for a plant in Wisconsin, Jannene noted, “it remains to be seen where those jobs are going to be, what those jobs are going to pay, and what happens with automation long term. Foxconn has been invested heavily in automating a lot of this work.”
Mercure noted that political leaders that usually talk to him have been “really skittish” to talk about Foxconn, “it’s like its kryptonite. What does that tell you about the situation?”
“To me it tells me there’s a deal that’s really alive,” Jannene said, and therefore officials don’t want to divulge the details and hurt the negotiations. The details, he noted, seem to include a 1000-acre campus in the Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant, with the possibility of water being provided by the city of Racine, a detail its Mayor John Dickert has divulged.
But the fact that officials are developing a plan tells only that they are hoping to land Foxconn. It doesn’t provide an answer to what the elusive company, which has often backed out of deals, will ultimately decide.
More about the Foxconn Facility
- Mount Pleasant, Racine in Legal Battle Over Water After Foxconn Failure - Evan Casey - Sep 18th, 2024
- Biden Hails ‘Transformative’ Microsoft Project in Mount Pleasant - Sophie Bolich - May 8th, 2024
- Microsoft’s Wisconsin Data Center Now A $3.3 Billion Project - Jeramey Jannene - May 8th, 2024
- We Energies Will Spend $335 Million on Microsoft Development - Evan Casey - Mar 6th, 2024
- Foxconn Will Get State Subsidy For 2022 - Joe Schulz - Dec 11th, 2023
- Mount Pleasant Approves Microsoft Deal on Foxconn Land - Evan Casey - Nov 28th, 2023
- Mount Pleasant Deal With Microsoft Has No Public Subsidies - Evan Casey - Nov 14th, 2023
- Microsoft, State Announce Massive Data Center Expansion, Land Purchase - Joe Schulz - Nov 11th, 2023
- Gov. Evers Announces Microsoft Makes Major Investment in Wisconsin - Gov. Tony Evers - Nov 10th, 2023
- State Can’t Regulate We Energies $100 Million Project for Microsoft - Joe Schulz - Sep 20th, 2023
Read more about Foxconn Facility here
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“They made a lot of promises in the state of Pennsylvania and never delivered.”
there’s a reason why nobody wants anything to do with fox comm…..Yea I sure people in WI will love those $7.75 jobs!!
but hey an job’s a job right
DONENT MATTER THAT YOU CAN’T LIVE OFF IT…..like 80% of the jobs in WI
Let’s also remember that the frothy furor over this in Wisconsin was started by someone else who makes a lot of overblown– and often careless–statements and promises that are never kept. “Consider the source.”
If Foxconn is looking to automate, it would make sense to put a plant in a place with the kind of skills to run that type of plant. If it ever happened, you can bet it wouldn’t be anywhere near 10,000 direct jobs. However, the type of jobs that would be created would be good jobs.
Assuming, Sam, that Foxconn pays what those jobs are worth, which is NOT their track record.
Let’s hope that the bank our politicians will be giving them come with safeguards that will see the taxpayers at least break even,
This topic reminds me of Four Season , the costume maker that had a desire of opening a plant in Milwaukee. Four Season was offering a lot of part time $10 an hour jobs for citizens that lived in and around Milwaukee. Four Seasons became frustrated with city government and moved to New Berlin. Politicians balked at Four Seasons for not providing full time work at or about $15 an hour and we wonder why city employment is so high?
You mean Buy Seasons?
Yes how dare people fight for a living wage and not poverty wages??!! The audacity??!!
The thing is if cities, counties, and states are subsidizing companies to open up plants then the jobs should be worth the investment. A number of analysis’ of these subsidy deals turn out to be heavily tilted towards the business, in some cases with states paying double in tax subsidies than the actual jobs pay out ( I read one report where a state was paying out 80K in subsidies per person in a job that paid 35K….at that point they might as well have just handed the whole 80K to a random person on the street). Many of these development deals are a poor choice for governments and often simply results in a race to the bottom.
At $3 billion for 13,000 jobs, the Wisconsin deal would cost $231,000 per job. The subsidies would total more than the combined yearly state funding used to operate the University of Wisconsin System and the state’s prison system.