Economy

Economists predict the economy in West Michigan will grow at a slow but steady pace this year.

“I mean we’re really looking at another year that feels like last year which isn’t so bad,” Paul Isley, chair of Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business, said.

“We're growing here in West Michigan. We have a potential that by the end of this year at least some areas of West Michigan will finally be above, employment wise, where we were in 2000, which will be really a hallmark,” Isley said.

Coming off two good earnings reports, the Compuware Company announced today it rejected a takeover bid by a hedge fund company.

More from JC Rendl of the Detroit Free Press: 

Michigan unions lost nearly 42,000 members over the course of 2012, representing about 10 percent of the nationwide decline in total membership.

The data come from a Bureau of Labor Statistics report that shows the percentage of American workers in unions dipped to its lowest rate in more than 70 years.

David Shepardson of The Detroit News has more:

More families in Michigan are finding it hard to meet basic needs.

A report by the Working Poor Families Project says a family of four with a household income of about $45,600 is considered low-income. Michigan finds itself in the middle nationally, with the 26th highest number of low-income working families in the nation.

Michigan’s home foreclosure rate has "plummeted" during the past 24 months, according to a new report.

According to Realty Trac, home foreclosure activity in Michigan dropped about 23 percent last year compared to 2011  and 43 percent compared to 2010.

Daren Bloomquist is with Realty Trac.  He says Michigan still has one of the highest home foreclosure rates in the nation.

Michigan’s unemployment rate held steady through the month of December at 8.9 percent, according to a report released today by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget (DTMB).

The December rate marks a four-tenths of a percent decrease from last year, while the national jobless rate dropped by seven-tenths of a percent over the same period.

Total employment declined by 11,000 last month.