Empty parking lot at dusk with factory building in the background

Coming Home to a Michigan County Where Life Has Shifted

As the primary in Michigan looms, a return to Bay County finds residents wrestling to make ends meet. Many plant jobs are gone. Getting by can be a juggling act.

Photographed for the New York Times

Person with glasses and a beard sitting in the driver's seat of a blue car, looking out the window.

Robby Lamas, who works at the GM Powertrain Bay City Plant, poses for a portrait in his Chevrolet Equinox. By working or GM, Lamas followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather but considers himself lucky to have the job. He’s the youngest person at the Bay City plant by ten years.

Aerial view of an industrial area with large warehouse buildings, a vast parking lot with few cars, and surrounding roads and landscape.

A woman in a black shirt leaning on a green seat in a dimly lit room with coats and hats hanging in the background.

Few cars are parked in the GM Powertrain Bay City Plant lot after years of significant cuts in staffing.

Erin Sitkowski waits tables at Coonan’s Irish Pub. To cover her expenses, Sitkowski also works in sales at a printing company and has taken in a roommate.

Empty glass on a napkin with a one-dollar bill underneath, next to a salt shaker on a table.

A man doing dishes at a kitchen sink next to a window with blinds. He is placing clean plates on a drying rack. The kitchen has wooden cabinets.

A customer left a tip under an empty beer glass at Coonan’s Irish Pub.

Jeffrey Bulls, who has worked in security at various auto industry sites in Saginaw for the past 23 years, washes the dishes at home on his day off. Bulls currently works for Nexteer, which GM sold to the China-based Pacific Century Motors in 2010.

Storefront with 'Entire Store On Sale' signs in red and yellow, window displays various sale items.

Unopened letters on a tiled floor inside a building, visible through a glass door. There is a dry leaf and a small feather nearby.

A shoe store had a liquidation sale before closing in downtown Bay City.

Bills litter the floor of a closed storefront in downtown Bay City, Michigan.

Two women sitting on a couch, one resting her head on the other's shoulder. The woman on the left wears a green "Lucky" T-shirt, and the woman on the right wears a black T-shirt. They both appear thoughtful and close.

Kim Matula poses for a portrait at home with her daughter Gloria Ana Ovalle, 16. Ovalle said she hopes to become a phlebotomist. Matula works as a cook at Coonan’s Irish Hub where she makes $15 an hour, one of the better hourly wages available in Bay City other than at the GM plant.

Person wearing jeans and boots fixing a large vehicle with big tires in a garage.

Brian Johnson works on fertilizer tank at Johnson Farm Co. Johnson recently took over operations and grows a variety of crops, including corn, soy and dry beans.

Man in a workshop with tools and machinery, standing by stairs, wearing a green jacket and cap.

Raymond Johnson poses for a portrait in the shop at Johnson Farm Co, which he helps run with his son Brian Johnson. Brian Johnson recently took over operations and grows a variety of crops, including corn, soy and dry beans.

Arianna Whisman, a 23-year-old college student at Saginaw Valley State University, works as a part-time manager at Coonan’s Pub, as an in-home care worker for a girl with special needs, as a subsitute teacher and as a part-time theater director at a local high school. She works to pay for her schooling and rent.

Two boys standing on a street, one holding a basketball, wearing hoodies and looking at the camera. Trees and houses in the background.

Two blocks down from the GM Powertrain Bay City Plant, neighbors Damon Norton, 12, at right, and Dion Smith, 8, play basketball on an unusually warm early March day. While GM used to be a major employer in the city, neither said they had family members who work at the plant.

Reflection of illuminated sign in puddle behind chain-link fence