Brewed Fresh Daily

In his jobs speech to a joint session of Congress last night, President Obama made it clear he’s betting on small businesses and government-works projects to create jobs. Prior to the speech, we asked people across the Midwest which industry they would bet on to turn around the economy. Several were on the same page as the President. Although many of them lacked his optimism, and think small business is a safe bet.

William Mayor of Barbeton, Ohio said, “I doubt that any single industry, in the normal sense of the word, can salvage our economy.”

Jeremy Peters of Ypsilanti echoed that sentiment. “Economic prosperity will only come from teamwork,” he said. Rather than picking an industry, Peters would like to see officials focus “on a plethora of small businesses across all genres and offering help and credits where needed.”

The Midwest, still battling the effects of the auto industry’s collapse, could be understandably gun shy about hitching its dreams to a new economic magic bullet. But whether its American optimism or desperation, plenty of people said if they had money to invest, they would bet on a variety of industries including: wind power, high-tech, bio-medical, advanced manufacturing, alternative energy, tourism, and yes, even autos.

Individuals aren’t the only ones ready to try to pick an economic winner. Educational institutions and local and state governments across the Midwest have put significant amounts of money into certain industries. Sometimes, there are federal dollars being leveraged as well.

A few examples of these investments can be found in Western Michigan spending hundreds of millions of state and federal dollars to attract advanced battery manufacturing companies.  Northeastern Ohio and the Detroit Metro area are still investing heavily in auto manufacturing, and Ann Arbor is working on cultivating a culture to nurture tech start-ups.

Thomas Sudow of Beachwood, Ohio would put his money on the bio-medical industry. “The Midwest has a reputation of making things and a lot of the skills needed to manufacture medical device are located in the Midwest,” he said. Both the Cleveland area and West Michigan in particular are investing heavily in health care, building new facilities and trying to attract biomedical device manufacturers.

Policy makers across the region are willing to make such broad and deep investments in the hopes that more jobs can be created. In Washington, D.C, President Obama called on Congress last night to pass his job bills quickly. The bill faces an uncertain future, as do many of these emerging industries in the Midwest.