SOUTHFIELD, Mich. - eTradeWire -- A WARN notice for 338 jobs usually reads like an ending. At Northpointe Bank, it is closer to a handoff. The Grand Rapids-headquartered lender has filed a state WARN notice covering 338 positions in Grand Rapids, Cascade Township and DeWitt, effective Dec. 31, as it sells its distributed retail and consumer direct mortgage origination business to CMG Financial under an agreement signed Oct. 26. CMG intends to offer employment to a majority of Northpointe's retail sales and consumer direct teams, along with some operations and support roles, and workers who are not offered positions will receive severance and benefits continuation through Dec. 31. Northpointe cited sustained higher interest rates and lower national home loan volumes in describing the sale as a strategic repositioning.

"Here is the diagnosis most workers miss: in a sale, a WARN notice is not the same as a plant closing," said CJ Eason, President of Workforce Development at Hired in Michigan. Eason is known to job seekers as "The Job Doctor" for her no-nonsense, solutions-based approach to job problems. "The buyer purchased the work — the loans, the customers and the people who know how to do it. That makes the weeks before Dec. 31 an interview window."

More on eTradeWire News

• Angela's Boutique Highlights Self-Care Gifts for Philadelphia Holiday Shoppers
• Dr. Carl L. Young's Five-Book Collection Comes to Audio — Narrated by the Author Himself
• Stone and Tile Books Launches Online Collection of More Than 75 Practical Guides
• The Mystery of the Rapture Revealed: Understanding the Gathering of the Church
• The Job Doctor's Prescription for Michigan's Layoff Wave: Don't Start Over — Transfer

Eason's prescription is three steps. "One — build your proof page: the loans and files you handled, the volume you moved, the customers who ask for you by name, in numbers. Two — get your answer in writing: role, pay, location and start date, or your severance and benefits dates. Do not let Dec. 31 arrive on a verbal promise. Three — run a parallel search now, while you are still employed. The typical unemployed American has been looking for 11.9 weeks, the longest stretch in about a decade outside the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

The national takeaway, Eason noted: "Wherever a business is sold instead of shut down, the acquiring company is hiring the experience it just bought. You are not begging the new owner for a job. You are showing the new owner the asset it already paid for: you."

Michigan workers can meet hiring employers face-to-face at Michigan's largest job fair event, hosted by Hired in Michigan on Thursday, Nov. 19, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel Southfield. The event is free for job seekers; details are at jobfairgiant.com.

More on eTradeWire News

• One Misstep Can Cost a License
• DealerUstaad Launches All-in-One Auto Platform with 1-Click Mass RMV & Provider Network
• Pibit Joins Guidewire PartnerConnect, Bringing Risk-Scored Submissions to PolicyCenter
• Turkish Engineer Who Cracked Wall Street's Algorithm Launches Hermes AI Analyzer
• ImageToLayers Launches "Character to Layers" to Automate 2D Rigging and Layer Prep

About Hired in Michigan: Hired in Michigan is a 501(c)(3) Community Empowerment organization specializing in helping military and military-connected families, in partnership with Spouses Works, the Department of War, and Blue Star Families. It operates jobfairgiant.com, Michigan's largest job fair event, and MichiganHired.com, where job seekers find verified, real job opportunities.

http://www.MichiganHired.com