by Bruce Walker
Job recovery in Michigan continues to rank among the worst in the country, according to a recently released report.
Michigan had the sixth-largest number of claims filed last week compared to 2019. The report, published by the personal finance website WalletHub, also ranks Michigan 47th in biggest increase in number of unemployment insurance initial claims in the week of Feb. 28, 2022 compared to the week of March 1, 2020. Only Kentucky (48); New Jersey (49); Kansas (50); and District of Columbia (51) fared worse.
Michigan ranked 45th in the nation for quickest recovery of unemployment claims.
Nevertheless, Michigan’s latest employment numbers have changed 31.09% over the same week in 2019, according to the report. Unemployment claims have dropped 41.17% between last week and the beginning of 2020. The change between last week and the same week of 2021 was 31.8%. There was a change of 95.299% in unemployment claims between the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the previous year.
The Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget reported Thursday the state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate declined by two-tenths of a percentage point during January to 4.9%, a two-tenths of a percentage point decline during January. The DTMB said Michigan’s total employment level in January increased by 19,000 and the number of unemployed fell by 11,000. The statewide rate declined by 1.5 percentage points over this period.
“Michigan’s unemployment rate declined significantly from 10.0 percent in 2020 to 5.9 percent in 2021,” said Wayne Rourke, associate director of the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives. “This was the third-largest rate drop among states in 2021, as Michigan workers returned to jobs following pandemic-related layoffs.”
The U.S. unemployment rate for January was 4%, up from 3.9% in December but lower than the 6.4% rate in January 2021. The study said the pandemic wiped all of the job gains subsequent to the Great Recession ended in 2010, and 22.7 million jobs were created during the subsequent decade. During the pandemic, 22 million jobs were lost nationwide, and only 19.9 jobs have been recovered since the peak of the pandemic (May 2020 to February 2022).
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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
