Tagged: unemployment rate

Detroit pulls back from the brink... again

In another down-to-the-wire showdown, an Ingham County Judge ruled yesterday that Detroit's top lawyer had no standing to halt a consent agreement between the state and the city. If she had been successful, there were warnings the city would go bankrupt in a matter of days.

Sarah Cwiek follows the Detroit drama for Michigan Radio and she caught up with Mayor Dave Bing after the judge's ruling:

“We need to get on with running the city," Bing said. "The city is still in a crisis. And we can’t have all of these distractions and think we’re going to bring the city back.”

The first steps: convening the city’s nine-member financial advisory board. That’s a key provision of the consent agreement. Bing says they’ll meet for the first time Friday.

Signs of improving housing situation in Michigan

Bank repossessions of homes in Michigan have dropped more than 40 percent over the last year.

Michigan Radio's Steve Carmody reports the Metro Detroit area's home foreclosure rate fell faster last month than any other of the nation’s 20 largest cities.

Carmody spoke with Daren Bloomquist, a Realty Trac vice president:

“We’re seeing about the same number of properties start the foreclosure process in Michigan as we saw a year ago,” says Bloomquist,  “But, we’re seeing fewer...much fewer of those actually make it to a completed foreclosure where the property is repossessed by the bank.”

Michigan's unemployment rate ticks upward

Michigan’s unemployment rate for May increased by two-tenths of a percentage point to 8.5 percent.

What does it all mean?

The Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget says it means more people are actively looking for work, which means they get counted as "unemployed" (you only get counted as unemployed if you've been searching for a job in the last month):

“Michigan’s labor market in May and throughout early 2012 has been stable,” said Rick Waclawek, director of the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives. “The minor upturn in the state’s jobless rate in May was partially due to individuals entering or reentering the workforce looking for jobs.”

Governor Rick Snyder discussed all kinds of issues during an online townhall meeting today. People participated in the town hall online and remotely from Traverse City, Grand Rapids and Detroit.

“My question is what can be done about the horrible transportation situation in the City of Detroit?” Shelia Foreman asked Snyder from Wayne State University’s TechTown. “I have had relatives lose their jobs because they cannot get to them. Do you have a solution for that?”

Update 2:50 p.m.

The data was released by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget (DTMB) this afternoon. Michigan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell by three-tenths of a percentage point to 8.5 percent

And total employment increased by 21,000 in March, while the number of unemployed declined by 12,000.

The state’s workforce recorded a gain of 9,000 over the month.

“With the March data, Michigan continues to record incremental monthly unemployment rate reductions,” said Rick Waclawek, director of the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives.  “During the first quarter of 2012, the number of unemployed in Michigan fell by 37,000.”

1:58 p.m.

Well, Mr. Snyder probably did not send the tweet himself, but his 'people' did.

An unemployment rate of 8.5 percent for March is a .3 percent drop from February, and Snyder is taking credit for the drop by adding the hashtag "#TheReinventionIsWorking."

Even though the unemployment rate has been dropping since it hit a peak of 14.1 percent in August and September of 2009, the overall labor force in Michigan has been dropping - meaning there are fewer people working in the state.

Michigan's total labor force dropped each month from November 2006 (5.08 million people working) to December 2011 (4.63 million people working).

But that recently changed. The overall labor force started to grow again in January 2012, and Snyder indicates that growth continues with the addition 21,000 more jobs.

For an more on how the unemployment rate is calculated, look at my post here.

Update 3:44 p.m.

O.k., here's the graph (above).

It's an attempt at a more complete employment picture in Michigan.

As you can see, the unemployment rate has been falling in the state since the fall of 2009, but it also shows the drop in the state's overall labor force.

The labor force is the overall number of employed people plus unemployed people.

The labor force has been plummeting since the end of 2006, and it has only nudged upward in the last two months. (See that little tail at the end of the blue line?)

From the Michigan Department of Technology, Management, and Budget:

Michigan’s workforce rose for the second month in a row in February, however it continues to be down over the year. From February 2011 to February 2012, Michigan’s labor force decreased by 28,000 or 0.6 percent. In general, the state’s labor force has been receding since 2006.

2:46 p.m.

Michigan's unemployment rate fell to 8.8 percent, and the state's total workforce grew by 14,000, according to the Department of Technology, Management, and Budget:

Michigan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in February continued its downward trend, declining over the month by two-tenths of a percentage point to 8.8 percent, according to data released today by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget (DTMB). Total employment rose by 22,000 in February as the number of unemployed declined by 8,000. The state’s workforce grew by 14,000 over the month.

Director of the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives Rick Waclawek said "the professional and business service sector in Michigan has recently displayed significant momentum, adding jobs in February for the seventh consecutive month."

I'll post up the graph that shows the trend lines in unemployment and the state's total labor force since January of 2001 once I double check the numbers.

The news that Michigan's unemployment rate dropped again for the month of December was good news for Governor Snyder's State of the State address, but this rate drop is accompanied by a continued drop in Michigan's overall labor force.

The labor force is the overall number of employed people plus unemployed people.

People are categorized as "unemployed" if they are out of work AND they have been looking for a job in the last 28 days.

As my chart shows above, the labor force in Michigan has been dropping consistently since 2006.

Comparing January 2006 to December 2011, there are around 432,000 fewer people in Michigan either working or looking for work.

This news comes from Michigan's Department of Technology, Management and Budget. Their data comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Michigan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in December declined by half a percentage point to 9.3 percent... Total employment increased by 13,000 over the month and the number of unemployed fell by 25,000. The state’s workforce declined by 12,000 in December...

“Michigan’s jobless rate fell again in December, as the state added jobs in professional and
technical services and manufacturing,” said Rick Waclawek, director of the Bureau of Labor Market
Information and Strategic Initiatives. “For 2011 as a whole, the state recorded a significant decline
in the unemployment rate and a modest gain in payroll jobs.”

The "unemployment rate" is calculated by the number of people who have actively been looking for work in the last four weeks.

Michigan’s rate of unemployment AND under-employment is 18.8 percent. The "under-employment" numbers take into account people who have quit looking along with part-time workers who’d like to be full-time.

The state says seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates increased in most regions of Michigan in July.

The figures released Thursday by the Department of Technology, Management and Budget show jobless rates increased in 14 of the state's 17 major regional labor markets compared to June. Statewide, the unadjusted jobless rate in July was 11.9 percent compared to 11 percent in June.

Rates ranged from a low of 7.8 percent in the Ann Arbor region to a high of 14.1 percent in the Detroit region. The state says the seasonal jobless rate increases were less than normal for July. Temporary summer layoffs in the auto industry were fewer than typical.

Job creation has been dragging for most of this year in the state and across the country. That helped push Michigan’s unemployment rate slightly higher to 10.5 percent in June.

There were 8,000 more unemployed people in Michigan last month – a total of 496,000 thousand people looking for work. The unemployment rate was inching downward as people found jobs in high-tech business services, health care, and manufacturing.

Bruce Weaver of the state Bureau of Labor Market Information says all that stalled in February.

“It appears that job levels have flattened out in the state and that’s across the board.”

The number of hours worked and payroll earnings also fell. The rate of unemployment and under-employment is 19.6 percent. That number counts part-timers who would like to work full-time, and former job seekers who got discouraged and quit looking.

Michigan’s new monthly jobless rate of 10-point-two percent signals the state continues to recover slowly from the recession. The new unemployment figure is a drop of one-tenth of a percentage point from March to April, and is a full three percentage points below where it was at this time last year.

There’s plenty of evidence that Michigan is in the early stages of a comeback, but job growth remains anemic. The state added just three thousand jobs from March to April.

One early, promising sign, though: so far this year people are no longer giving up their job searches and leaving the workforce. But, Bruce Weaver of the state Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives says disgruntled ex-jobseekers aren’t resuming their search for work, either. When that happens, he says, that could signal growing faith that a recovery is underway.

“One of the first impacts you will often see is an increase in individuals entering the workforce, seeking jobs. There’s not any evidence in these numbers that’s happening yet in Michigan.”

And Michigan’s rate of under-employment, while edging downward, remains high. The combined rate of unemployment and under-employment is 20 percent.