None of that is to say there aren't a few jobs out there, though.  What with the fresh start of spring and all...

And in keeping with new starts we've even got major Michigan businesses throwing the reload switch today.  The news broke late yesterday that American Axle, crippled now for more than a month by a protracted UAW strike, is done playing games and they're looking to hire replacement workers.  Actively looking.  Though they didn't advertise in the college papers.  The Associated Press reports:

An ad published in the classified section of The Oakland Press of Pontiac read in part: "Employment offered to applicants responding to this advertisement will be to fill anticipated attrition replacement openings after negotiations or in place of employees involved in this strike..."

American Axle also has sent letters to UAW-represented workers who were laid off before the strike began, asking them to return to work...

"They're trying to get away with everything they can right now," said Bob Stowell, a member of UAW Local 2093 in Three Rivers. "I think GM might be putting a little heat on them. I don't know how they're going to train these people or anything. ... I think it's just kind of a scare for us."

Well, Bob, is it working?  You don't want a job that's going to pay you somewhere around $30 an hour between wages and benefits there are literally hundreds of thousands of Michiganders who'd be thrilled to have it.  I know, I know, it's not the $73+ an hour you're making now, according to published reports, but $30 isn't a bad hour's work.  Just ask the workers at every single last one of your direct domestic competitors.

Still, these might not be the jobs for college kids.  American Axle's probably looking for a little more stability in their workforce after this recent and continuing upheaval.  Besides, they're not exactly glamour jobs.  Kids these days.  (/kidding)

But hey, maybe all the part-timer-wanna-bes can go to Hollywood.  Or, better yet, stick around as Hollywood comes here!  

Check this one out, boys and girls.  The Detroit Free Press reports this morning on massive bi-partisan legislation designed to bring the magic of tinseltown to a small town near you.  The Governor's always wanted to be a starlet and since that didn't work out I guess this is the next best thing.

The key feature of the incentive package is a refundable tax credit worth up to 42% of the cost of production. The size of the tax credit, in many cases, would dwarf any tax liability, the fiscal agency said; the state would write a check to the moviemakers for the difference.

A $100-million movie could be eligible for a subsidy of about $40 million.

That led the fiscal agency to conclude that any additional revenues (say business, income and sales taxes incurred by the production company) "would be unlikely to offset completely, or in some cases, even offset significantly, the cost of the ... credits."

And when that happens the State, literally, writes the movie maker a check for the difference.  That's right, taxpayers, you'll be paying Hollywood to come visit.  Sort of like reverse tourism.  Or tying a massive pork chop around our collective neck.

State Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, the only legislator voting against the incentives, called the refundable credits "categorically unfair" to business owners socked with big increases under the new Michigan Business Tax.

Gary Wolfram, a former deputy state treasurer who teaches economics at Hillsdale College, said Saturday it would have been far cheaper for the state to just waive taxes for moviemaking altogether.

As tax policy, the refundable credits are "completely nuts," he said.

Some folks unencumbered by the weight and pressure of "public service" have raised an interesting point.  If we're going to lose our minds wouldn't it have been slightly less insane to promise movie makers we'd just plain waive the bill?  Wipe the slate clean and tell them they can make movies here for free?  At least then you and I wouldn't be asked to personally pay for them to come visit.  

Is this the situation we're in now?  We actually have to write a check to get someone to stop by for a few weeks?  Heaven help us.

But let's not lose sight of the bigger picture here (bigger picture... get it?  Rimshot please...).  Jennifer Granholm, John Cherry, Andy Dillon, Andy Meisner, Gretchen Whitmer, Mark Schauer... the entire tax-hike caucus in both the House and Senate and their big-government pals in the governor's administration are all one-hundred percent on board with this idea.

They want jobs.  They realize they have to lure jobs.  They're doing that by reducing taxes.  McFly?  Anyone in there McFly?  

I know the small business down the block isn't as fancy and glamorous as Brad Pitt or freaking Jeff Daniels but are they worth less to the State?  Local boys and girls get stuck with a bigger tax bill while the studs from the silver screen get taxpayer funded rebate checks just to grace us with their presence?  

Hey, I get it... they come to town they eat at the local diner, they boost tourism, blah blah blah.  Guess what.  But the same principles apply to that parts supplier down in the industrial district.  Start cutting them State subsidy checks to keep their doors open and their employees will keep eating at the neighborhood greasy spoon, will keep paying their mortgages, will be able to afford new clothes for their kids.  

Then again, the Governor never aspired to be a blue collar factory worker, did she.