LANSING (WKZO-AM) – Michigan’s unemployment rate hasn’t budged for the last three months, remaining at 4.8 percent in April, despite the fact that there were more jobs created in Michigan during that period.
State statisticians say the economy actually created about 17,000 new jobs last month, but they were offset by the 18,000 who reentered the labor force to try to find work. Gov. Rick Snyder said he is not only encouraged that jobs are being filled, but that people are feeling good enough about the economy to reenter the workforce.
The state’s jobless rate is actually just a few tenths of a percent below the national average. Kalamazoo based industrial economist Brian Long said it has been a slow trip back toward full employment, but they are slowly getting there.
Long said the trend over the past year has been very positive, with the jobless rate now a full percent lower than this time last year.
