Up here at the Mackinac Policy Conference, business and political leaders may cheer the news that new data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the unemployment rate for Metro Detroit dropped to 4 percent in April.
This is in line with the national trend, where non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates were lower in April than a year earlier in 322 of the 388 metropolitan areas.
The Detroit-Warren-Dearborn area saw a drop from 4.6 percent to 4 percent year over year from 2016 to 2017. The area includes the counties of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, St. Clair and Lapeer.
“It is encouraging to see Detroit moving forward, but there is so much more we need to do. Thousands of construction jobs are being created through the arena district and the Gordie Howe Bridge, and we need people with the skills to fill those jobs,” said Roger Curtis, Director of Michigan’s Department of Talent and Economic Development. “We’re working to build talent so employers want to locate and grow in Detroit and beyond, creating more and better jobs for Michiganders.”
The rate in March of 2017 was 5 percent.
Statewide, the good news continues. Michigan’s year over year unemployment rate in April dropped from from 4.5 percent to 3.7 percent. Ann Arbor has the lowest rate in the state at 2.2 percent.
The lowest unemployment in the nation in April was in Ames, Iowa, and Boulder, Colorado, at 1.7 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.
