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U of M economists predict more job growth for Michigan

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Michigan is set to regain two-thirds of the jobs lost in the state since the Great Recession.

According to the annual economic forecast from the University of Michigan, there will be close to 126,000 new jobs in the state within the next two years.

Economists say that will bring the state's job levels back to where they were in 2003.

They're also predicting a drop in the state's unemployment rate, from 5% currently to 4.5% by the end of 2017.

"From the perspective of how the economy has been performing overall in growing out of the prior severe recession, things are looking pretty good. The environment has stabilized and progress has been fairly impressive," author George Fulton said, in a statement.

Though job growth is good news, the report cautions that Michigan is still lagging behind in some key economic areas including per-capita income, the employment-to-population ratio, and educational attainment.

"What this tells us is that although we've made a fair amount of progress recently, we have a ways yet to go," said Fulton.

The report says around 32,000 of the forecasted jobs will be in the professional and business services sector, while only 10,000 will be manufacturing jobs.

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