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Title: Michigan: Oakland County Adds More Than 23,000 Jobs To Local Workforce In 2011
Source:
DETROIT FREE PRESS
URL Source: http://www.freep.com/article/201204 ... sey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
Published: Apr 26, 2012
Author: DETROIT FREE PRESS
Post Date: 2012-04-26 12:05:10 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 1401
Comments: 3
Oakland County had a “sizzling” 2011, adding more than 23,000 jobs to the local workforce and beginning to make up the devastating losses in employment since 2005. That positive news came Thursday morning from George Fulton and Donald Grimes in their 27th annual economic outlook forecast for Oakland County. The economists from the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy also predicted that the county will add another 33,727 over the next three years. “We see the continuation of a solid recovery through 2014, but with job growth moderating from the unsustainable pace of last year,” the pair said in their report. Their predictions for the county’s economy in 2011 fell slightly short due, in part, to the rebound in the auto industry, including the reopening of GM’s Orion Assembly Plant in Orion Township. The increase in jobs last year was the biggest since 1994, they said. And perhaps the best news for the county: the highest number of jobs created were in the high wage category of at least $57,000 per year, the report said. “The county has been investing in the high tech sectors, like their Medical Main Street program,” said Pat Anderson, head of the Anderson Economic Group in Lansing. “They went through a time when two of their biggest employers went bankrupt and there were foreclosures in even the most affluent communities. With their fiscal management, they were able to maintain their AAA bond rating. It’s a well run county with a lot to offer.” But the county won’t easily recover all the 168,099 jobs lost between 2000 and 2010, Fulton and Grimes said, primarily because the increase in the number of retirees from the baby boomer generation. “This will reduce dramatically the number of residents available to work,” they said. The biggest growth to come will be in the private business service-providing sector and manufacturing, while job loses will continue in the public sector government jobs at the state, local and federal level. The report bodes well for the rest of the state, Anderson said. “I’m really optimistic about Michigan right now. The state has a lot of forward momentum,” he said. He attributed the positive economic news to a quickly balanced state budget, tax reform which lowered business taxes and the rebound in the domestic auto industry. “You put those things together and Michigan is poised to grow even faster than its neighbors,” Anderson said.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Michigan still has among the highest unemployment rates in the country. They have done almost nothing to diversify away from the auto industry. In the 1970's, Michigan (auto manufacturing, machine tools, agriculture, forestry products and furniture) and Washington (aerospace manufacturing, agriculture, and forestry products) were very similar in terms of economic mix, but Michigan was twice as large. Today Washington has dramatically diversified our economy. We are a leader in: - Software: Microsoft and hundreds of others - Wireless Communications: AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, Clearwire - Internet: Amazon, Disney Interactive, many others - Retail: Nordstrum, Starbucks, Amazon, others - Wineries and Craft Breweries: Way to many to mention - Bio-tech Boeing used to dominate the Seattle-area economy. Now it's a small piece of the mix. The auto industry still dominates the Detroit area. That's the problem.
Michigan Jobless Rate Continues To Drop, Hitting 8.5 Percent In March LANSING, Mich. — Michigan's unemployment rate continued to drop in March, reaching its lowest level since mid-2008, the state announced Wednesday. The state's seasonally adjusted jobless rate dipped to 8.5 percent, which was down from 8.8 percent in February and which marks the state's lowest jobless rate since August 2008. The number of unemployed dipped by 37,000 in the first three months of 2012, as employment rose by 21,000 workers in March alone, according to state statistics. Michigan's jobless rate, which has been among the nation's highest for several years, is now closer to the national average of 8.2 percent in March. Ten states had higher jobless rates than Michigan in February.
It won't last. Michigan has had its collective head stuck in the sand since the 1970s. That's why I got out when I could. I'm a huge of Alan Mulally. He did a great job as President of Boeing's Commercial Airline division, and he's done an unbelievable job as CEO of Ford. But, Michigan is still too reliant on one industry. The idiot union mentality is pervasive. Washington managed to build an entrepreneurial culture that attracts the best and brightest. How many people actually voluntarily move to the Detroit area? Almost no one. The Seattle area grew from from 1.5 million people to 3.5 million people in the 23 years that I've been here, because we attract the best and brightest people from all over the country and the world.
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#2. To: jwpegler (#1)
Michigan still has among the highest unemployment rates in the country.
#3. To: Brian S (#2)
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