You Manage a Workforce. Do You Know What Your Teen is Doing This Summer?

A photorealistic, split-composition landscape image contrasting productivity and idleness. On the left half, a focused 17-year-old male worker in a bright yellow safety vest and clear safety glasses stands at a clean industrial workbench inside a modern, organized manufacturing facility, reviewing a checklist on a clipboard. The lighting is bright and cool-toned. On the right half, a similar teenage male sits slouched on a tan couch in a suburban living room, looking down at his smartphone with a bored expression. The lighting on the right side is warm and slightly desaturated, creating a natural, cinematic contrast between the two scenes without a harsh dividing line.
You Manage a Workforce. Do You Know What Your Teen is Doing This Summer? | WSI

Here is a scenario that plays out every June in manufacturing facilities, distribution centers, and corporate offices across West Michigan: a plant manager or HR director spends the day wrestling with workforce capacity, shift coverage, and headcount planning. Then they go home and find a teenager parked on the couch, phone in hand, with no particular plan for the next ten weeks.

The irony is rich. And the opportunity is real.

Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) reports that more than 252,500 Michiganders ages 16-19 are expected to enter the labor market this summer. More than 207,000 of them are projected to find employment. That is a significant pool of entry-level energy moving through industries like retail, food service, hospitality, and recreation -- industries that have historically absorbed young workers while manufacturing has not always made the same reach.

252,500
Michigan teens entering the workforce this summer
207,000+
Projected to be employed by end of summer 2026
51,400+
Students participated in Michigan Works! career events in 2024-25

The Pipeline Problem No One is Talking About

Michigan manufacturers have spent the better part of a decade lamenting the skilled worker shortage. The average age of the production floor workforce climbs every year. Institutional knowledge walks out the door at retirement. Recruitment budgets balloon. Yet the same employers who understand this dynamic at a strategic level often have not connected it to the 16-year-old who lives under their roof.

That disconnection is costing the industry more than it realizes.

When young workers land their first jobs at a retailer or a fast food chain, they are building their foundational assumptions about work -- what a good employer looks like, what a reasonable schedule feels like, what it means to show up consistently and be treated with respect. Manufacturing has an opportunity to shape those assumptions early, and most of it is being left on the table.

Michigan Workforce Data
Michigan Teen Labor Market: Trends + Career Impact
Select a view to explore the data
252,500
Teens entering labor market, summer 2026
50%
Teen labor force participation rate, 2026
207,000+
Projected employed this summer
Labor force participation rate (%) Teens employed (thousands)
Participation rate: 2020 38.3%, 2021 43%, 2022 47%, 2023 49%, 2024 49.5%, 2025 50%, 2026 50%.
Sources: Michigan DTMB; Michigan Center for Data and Analytics; Michigan LEO (2026)
What happens when a teen's first job is in manufacturing vs. retail? Adjust the starting wage to see how the trajectories diverge over 10 years.
$15/hr
Manufacturing first job Pipeline path
Retail / food service first job Common path
Manufacturing path Retail / food service path
10-year wage comparison between manufacturing and retail career paths.
Projections illustrative. Based on BLS Occupational Employment data, Michigan average wage growth by sector, and Going PRO Talent Fund upskilling outcomes. Actual results vary.

"When employers are willing to bring young people into the workplace, mentor them and give them real responsibility, it can completely change how they see themselves and their future." -- Ericka Page, Director of Youth Program Services, Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation

What Early Investment Actually Returns

The Clare County Road Commission in mid-Michigan ran this experiment. They brought in Cameron Letts, a recent high school graduate, for a summer youth employment opportunity through Michigan Works!. By summer's end, what started as a short-term role had evolved into a full-time technical assistant position, with Letts actively exploring civil engineering as a long-term career path.

"When we bring them into real work environments early, we're shaping future employees who already understand the work and our expectations," said Dewayne Rogers, Managing Director of the Road Commission. "We've seen firsthand how early exposure and mentorship turn potential into long-term value for both the worker and the employer."

That is not an isolated story. It is a repeatable model -- and one that Michigan manufacturers are positioned to run at scale.

Where Employers Can Start

Connect with Michigan Works!

Michigan Works! agencies serve as a direct conduit between employers and young job seekers. During the program year ending June 2025, Michigan Works! hosted 27 large-scale career exploration events with more than 51,400 students and approximately 1,100 employers. That infrastructure exists. Using it is a business decision, not a charitable one.

Think Beyond the Summer

The employers who extract the most long-term value from youth hiring are the ones who treat a summer role as the first chapter of a longer workforce relationship -- not a 10-week transaction. Structured mentorship, real responsibility, and honest feedback during those weeks do more for talent retention than most recruitment campaigns.

Talk to Your Own Kids

This is the part that does not typically appear in a workforce brief, but it belongs here. If you are a plant manager, an operations director, or an HR leader, and you have a teenager at home with an unstructured summer ahead of them, you already have a direct line to the next generation of the workforce. That conversation -- about the real nature of work, the value of showing up, the difference between a job and a career -- is one you are uniquely qualified to have.

The staffing gap Michigan manufacturers face in 2026 and beyond will not be closed by recruitment technology or compensation adjustments alone. It will be closed, incrementally, by employers who decided early that developing young workers was a strategic investment rather than someone else's responsibility.

WSI has been helping Michigan employers build and manage workforce solutions for decades. If your organization is ready to think more strategically about entry-level talent pipelines -- including how summer and seasonal hiring fits into a longer workforce plan -- our team is ready to talk.

And if your teen is still on the couch, we wrote something for them too.

Build a Smarter Workforce Pipeline

WSI works with Michigan manufacturers and employers to develop flexible, strategic staffing solutions -- from entry-level seasonal roles to long-term workforce planning.

Talk to WSI

Michigan Just Told Manufacturers Something They Can’t Afford to Ignore

Two manufacturing professionals review real-time production flow analytics on a large digital display inside a modern Michigan manufacturing facility, representing the intersection of skilled workforce management and AI-driven operational data."

Michigan’s AI workforce data is flashing clear signals. Manufacturers who ignore the skill gap now will pay for it in production later.

Continue reading

Turnover Is Expensive. You Know What’s Cheap? A Bike.

20 year old woman parks her red bike in a bike rack at a warehouse facility.

A Bike Changed Everything. Seriously.

For most people, getting to work is an afterthought. You grab your keys, maybe stop for coffee, and show up. For a growing number of workers, though, the gap between having a job and keeping a job comes down to something far simpler — how to get there.

Transportation barriers are one of the most underreported drivers of workforce instability in America. No car. No bus route that works. No money for an Uber at 5 a.m. These are not excuses. They are the daily math that millions of people do before they ever set foot on a job site. And when the numbers do not add up, they call off. And when they call off enough, they lose the job. And the cycle starts over.

At WSI, we see this play out in real time. A reliable associate goes dark. A client calls frustrated. The reason, more often than people expect, traces back to a busted transmission, a cancelled ride, or a bus that does not run that early.

So when our Senior Account Manager Ben Heyn met Upcycle Bikes Executive Director Rick Armbruster at a Resource Fair at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, he did not just shake hands and move on. He saw a solution.

Upcycle Bikes is a Grand Rapids-based nonprofit that takes donated bicycles, refurbishes them, and distributes them free of charge to adults facing financial hardship. The numbers behind their work are striking — 87% of recipients come from households earning less than $35,000 annually, and 83% use that bike as their primary transportation for basic daily needs. In 2025 alone, they placed 1,214 bikes through a network of 44 distribution partners, backed by more than 3,100 volunteer hours.

These are not recreational riders. These are people getting to dialysis appointments, grocery runs, and yes — jobs.

Ben spent the better part of several months building a formal partnership between WSI Grand Rapids and Upcycle Bikes. The result is straightforward and powerful. When a WSI associate misses a shift due to a transportation issue, we now assess the situation and, where it makes sense, offer them a free refurbished bike — complete with a helmet, lights, and a lock.

That is not a perk. That is infrastructure.

Upcycle Bikes x WSI Talent
National Bike Month 2026  |  Grand Rapids, MI
A free bike.
Your job.
Both secured.
WSI associates in Grand Rapids facing transportation barriers can now receive a free refurbished bike through our partnership with Upcycle Bikes.
Upcycle Bikes
WSI Talent GR
Every bike includes -- at no cost
Refurbished bicycle
Helmet
Front + rear lights
Bike lock
Talk to your WSI contact
Transportation trouble affecting your shifts? We have a solution.
→
1,214
bikes placed in 2025
83%
rely on bike as primary transport
44
distribution partners
upcyclebikes.org  |  wsitalent.com

The cost of turnover to employers is well documented. Recruiting, onboarding, lost productivity — it adds up fast. If a bike worth a few hundred dollars keeps a solid worker employed and a client’s line staffed, that math is not complicated.

What Ben built reflects something we believe at WSI — that being a workforce partner means more than filling orders. It means understanding the real barriers people face and doing something about them when you can. Upcycle Bikes is doing extraordinary work in the Grand Rapids community, and we are glad to be part of extending that reach.

Transportation should not be the reason someone loses their shot. Now, for some WSI associates in Grand Rapids, it will not be.

To learn more about Upcycle Bikes, visit upcyclebikes.org

Cheapest Day to Get Gas in Michigan: 10 Proven Ways to Save Money Now

womain in a safety vest fills a small cargo van with gas at the pump on an early morning. A refinery sits in the distant background and a gas sign with the price of gas reading $3.79 is present insinuating high gas prices.

Michigan gas prices are spiking again. Here’s why Sunday matters most, plus 10 practical ways drivers and employers can save.

Continue reading

One Day of Appreciation Won’t Fix Your Culture — But Ignoring It Will Break It

Employee Appreciation Day reminds manufacturing leaders that real recognition, respect, and opportunity drive retention more than pizza ever could.

Continue reading

What 60% of Gen Z’s Career Plans Mean for the Future of Manufacturing

Gen Z is turning toward skilled trades for stability, pay, and AI-proof careers—manufacturers must modernize recruiting to win them.

Continue reading

Turning Your Employees Into Brand Ambassadors

Turn shop-floor credibility into a recruiting engine: build a real EVP, fix candidate experience, enable ambassadors, measure outcomes that matter.

Continue reading

SNAP on Hold. Why Factories Will Feel It First

Two factory workers in hi vis jackets stand in a staggered line facing a mobile food pantry truck at dusk, watching the volunteer inside as warm light spills onto the cold factory lot.

Continue reading

Michigan Economy 2025: The Split No One Wants to Admit

A vertical split-screen image contrasting economic hardship and affluence. Left: A middle-aged couple sits at a dimly lit, cluttered kitchen table covered in bills and receipts, both with worried expressions. Right: A smiling, well-dressed group (one man, two women) walks confidently through a bright, luxurious shopping arcade, carrying designer bags from brands like Chanel and Prada.

The Detroit Regional Chamber’s September 2025 Michigan Statewide Voter Survey, conducted by the Glengariff Group, offers a snapshot of a state both resilient and restless. The data reveal a public that sees signs of economic stabilization but remains haunted by high costs, uneven opportunity, and deep uncertainty about what lies ahead. Over the next six months, the outlook hinges on whether consumer confidence and job quality can overcome the drag of inflation and tariff pressure.

Michigan’s Mood: A Narrow Majority Feels the State is on Track

For the first time since early 2025, more than half of Michigan voters, 51.5 percent, say the state is on the right track, compared to 33.7 percent who believe it is on the wrong one. This modest optimism stems mainly from independents, whose right-track sentiment jumped from 44.7 percent in April to 52.3 percent in September. Strong Republican voters also showed a notable uptick, from 20.9 percent to 34.0 percent. These shifts suggest a fragile coalition of confidence that extends beyond partisan lines, even as economic doubts persist.

But when asked specifically about the economy, Michiganders are divided. Forty-two point four percent say it is on the right track, and 42.8 percent say it is not. This statistical split highlights a state where people may feel better about direction and leadership than about their wallets.

Political identity shapes how people read the same economic facts. This is normal and well documented. Pew shows that views of national economic conditions swing with party control of the White House, with Republicans turning more positive and Democrats more negative in 2025. Gallup reports the same flip in its Economic Confidence Index following the 2024 election, driven by Republicans becoming more upbeat and Democrats more downbeat. Political scientists describe this as motivated reasoning or partisan bias in perception, where people seek and interpret information that affirms prior loyalties rather than updating neutrally. 

Grouped bar chart titled “Economy Is Growing: Michigan Voters by Party.” X axis lists Strong Democratic, Lean Democratic, Independent, Lean Republican, Strong Republican. Y axis is percent from 0 to 100. Four series labeled Sept 2024, Jan 2025, April 2025, Sept 2025. Strong and Lean Democrats are high in Sept 2024 and Jan 2025 at about 62 to 70 percent, then fall to about 14 to 18 percent by April and Sept 2025. Independents are 35.6 in Sept 2024, 34.9 in Jan 2025, dip to 25.4 in April 2025, then rise to 43.2 in Sept 2025. Lean Republicans rise from 10.2 in Sept 2024 to 53.5 in Sept 2025. Strong Republicans rise from 6.9 in Sept 2024 to 60.2 in Sept 2025. Note shows recession reasons among those saying recession: inflation and costs 49.1 percent, job reduction 17.0 percent, tariffs 13.2 percent. Source Michigan Statewide Voter Survey Sept 2025, Glengariff Group for Detroit Regional Chamber.
Inflation: The Persistent Undercurrent

Inflation remains the state’s defining economic anxiety. Among voters who say Michigan’s economy is on the wrong track, 38.8 percent cite inflation and the cost of goods as the main reason, up sharply from 22.9 percent in May. Three out of four residents, 75.8 percent, report paying more for groceries, two thirds, 68.1 percent, for utilities, and 60.4 percent for home or auto insurance. These figures cut across demographics and party lines.

The pain of rising costs has not translated into universal despair. Roughly 72.6 percent of voters say they are doing better or about the same as a year ago. Yet, of the 27.1 percent who say they are doing worse, a majority, 55.2 percent, blame inflation. Only 16.8 percent say they are doing better, often due to wage increases, promotions, or new jobs, small but meaningful signs of labor-market movement.

Jobs and Hiring: The Confidence Gap

Just over half, 52.0 percent, believe good-paying jobs are available, a drop of eight points since May. That decline is led by Democratic voters, only about one third of whom see strong job prospects. Independents, 60.4 percent, and Republicans, roughly two thirds, are more upbeat. Still, four in ten Michiganders say they know someone looking for work, and 77.8 percent of them say it has been hard to find a job. Among those aware of recent college graduates, 77.0 percent say the same.

This sentiment gap, between perceived availability of good jobs and personal experience finding them, underscores a labor market that feels tight on both sides. For employers, it signals lingering competition for skilled workers even as wage pressure softens. For job seekers, especially younger and lower-income workers, it reflects frustration that openings do not always translate into sustainable pay.

Tariffs: A Clear Economic Flashpoint

Michigan’s manufacturing base feels the bite of global policy more than most. Voters oppose the expanded tariffs by a 51.2 to 40.8 margin. A majority, 71.5 percent, say tariffs have increased what they pay for goods, and 60.3 percent believe tariffs are hurting the state’s auto industry. Nearly half expect smaller profit-sharing checks for auto workers this year.

Those numbers suggest that what was once an abstract policy debate has become a daily reality for Michigan households. The rising costs of vehicles, materials, and inputs are trickling through to local economies. Yet, some blue-collar workers remain more supportive of tariffs than their white-collar counterparts, indicating that the political divide over trade is tied to identity as well as economics.

stack of deliquent bills on a kitchen table with a bag of groceries and a tv out of focus in background
Artificial Intelligence: A Dividing Line Between Opportunity and Anxiety

Nearly half of Michigan voters (47.5%) report using AI in their personal or professional lives, but optimism about its benefits is muted. Only 23.7% believe AI will make Michigan more prosperous, while 39.4% think it will make the state less so. A majority (61.0%) expect AI to lead to fewer jobs, not more Fall-2025-Michigan-Voter-Poll . The divide between white-collar and blue-collar voters is striking: 71.6% of white-collar workers say they use AI, compared to just 36.6% of blue-collar workers. This gap reveals an emerging structural challenge: whether technology adoption will widen or bridge economic divides. If Michigan’s industrial base fails to reskill its workforce at pace with automation, that pessimism could become self-fulfilling.

The Next Six Months: Two Diverging Roads
Optimistic scenario: Inflation continues to cool, tariffs stabilize, and employers—especially in automotive and advanced manufacturing—resume hiring to meet long-term production goals. Wage growth steadies, confidence rises among independents, and consumer spending normalizes into early 2026. Negative scenario: Inflation expectations, already high (43.1% expect it to worsen), drag on real wages. Tariff-driven costs ripple through Michigan’s manufacturing base, curbing output and dampening profit-sharing. Job openings persist, but workers remain mismatched or underpaid. In that climate, optimism could collapse as quickly as it rebounded. The September 2025 survey captures a moment of balance—between endurance and fatigue, adaptation and anxiety. Whether Michigan leans toward renewal or retrenchment will depend less on macroeconomic forces and more on how effectively its employers, educators, and policymakers convert short-term strain into long-term resilience.