Business over Breakfast event to examine 'Workforce development and the challenges of hiring'

That question will be addressed during the University of Michigan-Dearborn Doing Business in Detroit Series: Workforce Development and the Challenges of Hiring. The event will take place Wednesday, Nov. 7, from 7:30-10 a.m.

The event is sponsored by UM-Dearborn's College of Business, in conjunction with Crain's Detroit Business Over Breakfast series.

The workforce environment and policies that surround it are changing rapidly. Firms are struggling to fill positions in sectors like information technology and marketing. Manufacturing is seeing growth, and the job market is tightening in other sectors. Meanwhile, the state’s unemployment rate remains near 8.5 percent and Detroit’s rate in nearly double that.

A panel of experts will analyze and discuss the pitfalls and challenges that lay ahead. Panelists include:

• Amy Cell, senior vice president, Michigan Economic Development Corporation;
• Ryan Hoyle, director of global recruiting, GalaxE.Solutions;
• Lisa Katz, executive director, Workforce Intelligence Network;
• Bruce Pietrykowski, professor of economics at UM-Dearborn and director, Center for Labor and Community Studies.

Breakfast and networking will begin at 7:30 a.m., with the panel discussion following from 8:30-10 a.m. The event will take place at the College of Business, Fairlane Center North-Quad E, 19000 Hubbard Drive, Dearborn 48126.

Business over Breakfast is supported by The Betty F. Elliott Initiative for Academic Excellence, which was launched within the College of Business in 2010 as a campus-wide exploration of critical business issues that will connect business leaders, alumni, faculty and students throughout the next decade and beyond.

Each year the Elliott Initiative examines a multi-dimensional and inter-disciplinary issue that is currently facing the region and its revitalization. “Doing Business in Detroit” is the theme for 2012-2013.