WASHINGTON: Recent changes in Michigan’s largest city include slower population losses and billions of new downtown investment. Then just this week, the city of Detroit learned it reached a 16-year unemployment milestone. About 8.4 percent of Detroit’s workforce was unemployed in April, compared to federal data. That’s just a fraction more than in May 2001 – a time when the U.S. was learning about the dot.com bubble and months ahead of the 9-11 crisis. And it contrasts to the recent unemployment high in the city, when it hit a catastrophic 28.4 percent in June 2009 as the nation’s economy headed into a freefall. “We’ve been working really hard at it,” said Mayor Mike Duggan in an interview at the Mackinac Policy Conference. His assessment: “Good progress. Lot of work to do.” The numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show wide monthly fluctuations for Detroit’s numbers over time. For example, the unemployment rates in January and February both totaled 12 percent.
Duggan noted that more than 15,000 more Detroiters are working today than when he took office in January 2014, according to the data. And nearly 2,500 people were added to employment lists between March and April. “Everybody knows progress is being made,” Duggan said. “We still have a long way to go, though,” he added. “Even at 8.4 percent, we’re the highest unemployment rate in the state of Michigan.” Monthly employment data for Michigan released in late May showed an overall unemployment rate for the state of 3.7 percent. That compares to 4.5 percent a year earlier, when 81,000 fewer people were in the labor force – meaning that 94,000 more Michiganders were employed this spring. The regional unemployment numbers range from a low of 2.2 percent in Ann Arbor, 2.4 percent in Grand Rapids and 2.9 percent in Lansing to 6.7 percent in Northeast Lower Michigan and 5.8 percent in the Upper Peninsula. Detroit is part of the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn metropolitan area, which has an overall unemployment rate of 4 percent. The labor force in that area grew by 48,000 people over the past year.
Detroit’s most recent numbers show about 223,000 employed in the city, with about 20,000 people in the labor force but not employed. The improvement in the unemployment numbers for Detroit convey a message for the rest of Michigan. With more city residents employed, the economic balance of the city continues to shift. Employment news in the city over recent months include corporate headquarters like Adient moving to the city, along with groundbreaking for Flex N Gate’s new manufacturing facility. And that speaks to Detroit’s role as a destination for investors – and recent college graduates. “Where we were losing our children to Chicago or LA five or 10 years ago, Detroit is the opportunity to keep our kids home,” Duggan said. “And I think there’s more and more support for us.”
