A new economic forecast from the Economic Growth Alliance says southeastern Michigan will finally begin to gain jobs next year.
The Economic Growth Alliance is a partnership of five southeastern Michigan counties: Genesee, Lapeer, Livingston, Oakland and St. Clair. The forecast, prepared by George Fulton and Don Grimes of the U-M Institute of Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy, projects that the region will make small gains in job growth beginning in 2011.
"Although we are forecasting that the five-county region will lose another 11,000 jobs this year---painful indeed, but the smallest annual job loss in the region since 2005---the pattern of job loss is reversed next year for the first time since 2000," Fulton says.
The five-county area lost nearly 225,000 jobs over the last 10 years. According to the projection, the region will gain close to 2,600 jobs in 2011, and another 8,500 jobs in 2010.
Fulton and Grimes noted that all of the net job gains for the next two years will occur in the private sector, as state and local governments continue to deal with budget shortfalls and fiscal pressure. Professional and business services, private education, health services and construction are all forecasted to add thousands of jobs to Michigan's economy by 2012.
The study also pointed to another positive trend: a rise in entrepreneurship and self-employment. By looking at household employment, or the number of residents who say they are working for themselves or for someone else, almost 15,000 jobs were added using this measurement. Household employment will result in 21,000 more jobs over the next two years, according to the study.
"The more favorable outlook for household employment is due in large part to the increasing numbers of self-employed in a tentative hiring environment," Grimes says.
Source: Economic Growth Alliance.
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