Commentary

Honda: Ohio’s top auto industry employer

Honda Motor Corporation is Ohio’s top auto industry employer, putting 14,000 Ohioans to work in five plants in West-Central Ohio according to the Ohio Department of Development’s 2008 report “Ohio Major Employers“. Honda is tied with General Electric and Procter & Gamble as the state’s top manufacturing employer. General Motors is the state’s fourth largest employer, with 12,300 workers. A ranking, by employment, for the top auto industry manufacturers would be: Honda, 14,000 GM, 12,300 Ford, 9,900 Delphi (parts), 6,200 Chrysler, 5,600 In other words a “foreign” car company has been profitably making cars (and motorcycles) in the heart of the nation’s manufacturing belt since the 1970s, and now employs almost as many people as Ford and Chrysler combined.