MLive: Michigan unemployment drop ‘a good sign’

The size of the improvement in Michigan’s unemployment in December, and the fact that more Michiganders found jobs than dropped out of the labor market, is an indication the state’s long-bleak employment picture is changing, a Southwest Michigan employment expert told MLive.

Michigan’s over-the-month unemployment rate declined 0.5 percent, from a seasonally adjusted 9.8 percent in November to 9.3 percent in December, 2011. In December, Michigan’s unemployment rate dropped faster than any state other than Alabama.

Excerpt:

“In some other states, while we see the unemployment rates going down, it’s simply because other people are leaving the work force or retiring,” said Brad Watts. But, he added, while Michigan unemployment is improving faster than almost any other state, it has farther to climb, since it never recovered from the 2001 recession.

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Source: MLive.com