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Michigan Jobless Rate Drops To 7.5%

Michigan’s unemployment rate dropped slightly last month to 7.5%.

It marks the seventh month in a row the rate has declined, and its lowest point since April of 2008.

The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Rick Pluta reports.

The jobless rate is a little more than 1% below where it was a year ago, and outpaced the improvement in the national rate over the same period.

Over the past 12 months, employment grew in the manufacturing, high-tech, and hotel-and-restaurant sectors. There were job losses in the government and financial sectors.

The overall drop in statistical unemployment in Michigan has been slowed somewhat by people re-joining the workforce to compete for jobs. Also, when people who have stopped looking for work, as well as part-time workers who’d like to be full-time, are added the mix, Michigan’s rate of unemployment and under-employment is 15.2%.

Rick Pluta is Senior Capitol Correspondent for the Michigan Public Radio Network. He has been covering Michigan’s Capitol, government, and politics since 1987. His journalism background includes stints with UPI, The Elizabeth (NJ) Daily Journal, The (Pontiac, MI) Oakland Press, and WJR. He is also a lifelong public radio listener.
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