This is Michigan

Auto sales are on the upswing; corporate earnings are positive; productivity levels are on par with Japanese competitors; and quality is vastly improved, among other key benchmarks. Of course getting to this point hasn't been easy. Two of Detroit's automakers went bankrupt; thousands of jobs were lost; investors lost money; and many of the brands people loved have been eliminated.

Some called them crazy.

But as outsiders declared Detroit all but dead, a passionate network of nonprofits, local developers, small-business owners, universities and hospitals poured cash and sweat into culturally rich areas that are emerging stronger and more popular than before the brutal economic downturn.

At long last, job growth is returning to Michigan.

For the first time in a decade, employers around the state are expected to fill more positions in 2011 than they eliminate. The hiring will be led by the newly resurgent U.S. automakers and their suppliers.

Ford is the latest U.S. automaker to hire hundreds of workers as the economy picks up and auto sales improve.

Chase Bank is seeing signs of a recovery in Michigan's long-suffering economy but one of its top executives warned that the credit crisis won't be solved until the country's banks improve their financial condition.

The Chevrolet Volt starts arriving in buyers' driveways in limited markets outside of Michigan this month, but some confusion remains about everything from how the Volt works to why General Motors is building it.

General Motors posted its last financial report before the company's initial public offering of stock next week. In it, the company reported that in the third quarter of 2010, it earned a net income of $1.96 billion on a total of $34.06 billion in revenue. That puts the automaker's 2010 figures at $4.16 billion of net income on $98.17 billion in revenue, though GM does say that it expects earnings to fall in the fourth quarter thanks to costs associated with developing new vehicles and launching products like the Chevrolet Volt and Cruze.

New York-based Living Cities, a collaborative of 22 national foundations and financial institutions, plans to invest $22 million in an effort to redensify Detroit's Woodward Corridor.