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Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling Tours Neogen in Lansing on Workforce and Automation

October 16, 2026 · USDepartmentofLabor · 0:02:02

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What happened

WLNS reported that U.S. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling returned to mid-Michigan to tour a local plant to highlight workforce training and automation, in his second Lansing stop of the year and his first since being sworn in, according to the report. On Thursday he toured Neogen, a food and animal safety company headquartered in Lansing, accompanied by Congressman Tom Barrett, to spotlight advanced manufacturing in the region and the skilled workers behind it, the report said.

Sonderling said the innovation at Neogen in next-generation food safety was impressive and that the department would hold a roundtable discussion with stakeholders on how the Labor Department fits into the work being done in Lansing, as he stated it. The tour came four years after Neogen broke ground on its $70 million Lansing expansion, which the company said would create 60 to 100 new jobs, from automation technicians to chemists and engineers, according to the report.

Sonderling said that when companies make investments of this kind — he cited $200 million invested in the local community — the Labor Department wants to ensure local workers get those opportunities, can stay in their communities, and can fill new high-skill, high-wage jobs that did not exist before. The department is working with the congressman to align the workforce system with the education system and to talk with employers about the jobs they are creating, he said.

Why it matters

The visit shows the Labor Department’s stated workforce model in practice: pairing large private expansions with local training pipelines so new manufacturing jobs are filled by local workers rather than imported talent.

Sources: USDepartmentofLabor, “Secretary Keith Sonderling visits NeoGen (WLNS6)”, 2026-10-16 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-10-16). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.