Michigan’s unemployment rate dropped in September for the first time in six months. The decline was a very slight one-tenth of a percentage point to 9.3%.
It was good news, even if job growth remains slow. The state’s unemployment rate is a full percentage point below where it was at this time last year – due to hiring in business and temp services, the finance sector, and manufacturing.
Bruce Weaver is an analyst at the state bureau of labor information. He says those gains were only partially offset by job losses in a couple of sectors.
“The two areas of the economy that have lost a decent number of jobs over that period would be retail sector and government,” he says.
Weaver says the smaller jobless rate is not due to a smaller workforce caused by people giving up their search for employment. When people who’ve quit looking are counted, along with part-timers who’d like full-time work, the state’s rate of unemployment and under-employment is 17%.
