By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-928089.mp3
LANSING, MI –
Governor Granholm says there's more evidence that Michigan is in the early stages of a turnaround in the economy. As we hear from Michigan Public Radio's Rick Pluta, a new report says the state will start adding jobs in 2011 - which has not happened in a decade.
AUDIO:
The U-of-M forecast says Michigan will probably lose more than 20,000 jobs over the course of 2010. But last year the state shed more than 10 times as many jobs. Job recovery is expected to start slowly - by the end of 2012 Michigan's expected to regain only about 10 percent of the jobs lost over the past decade.
But Governor Granholm says that still shows a recovery is starting.
"Bottom line for us is, there's an opportunity," she says. "We've hit bottom. We are starting to climb out and when we climb out, we cannot veer from this course of diversifying our economy and educating our citizens."
The governor's focused on worker retraining and attracting new industries such as films, advanced batteries and alternative energy. A lot of those jobs are heavily subsidized because it took generous tax breaks to lure them to Michigan.