WASHINGTON: Oakland County’s unemployment rate dropped to 3 percent in April, the lowest it has been in 17 years. It is lower than both state and federal jobless figures in April. In Michigan, the April unemployment rate was 3.7 percent; the U.S. rate was 4.1 percent. The April county-level data released Thursday by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics represents the lowest jobless rate since December 2000, when unemployment was 2.4 percent and an improvement over March’s 3.8 percent jobless rate. According to the Labor department, the unemployment rate represents the percentage of people in the labor force without jobs who have actively looked for work in the past four weeks.
According to Irene Spanos, Oakland County’s economic development and community affairs director, the number of people employed within the county is the highest it has been since August 2001 at 632,448. “Our workforce continues to grow and those additional people are finding jobs,” said Spanos. “That’s great news for our community. This impressive decline in the unemployment rate is a clear indication that Oakland County’s economy continues to improve and that domestic and global companies remain committed to investing in the county.” Spanos credits the improving economy, in part, to the retention and attraction of businesses in industries such as advanced electronics and power generation, advanced materials, aerospace, communications and information technology, homeland security, medical, and robotics and automation. Since 2004, the 442 businesses in those industries have either expanded within or moved into the county generating $3.9 billion of investment, the creation of 43,297 jobs and 27,947 retained jobs.
