Michigan unemployment up slightly in June, still higher than national average

By Ben Freed Business Reporter

Posted on Fri, Jul 20, 2012 : 4:28 p.m.

Michigan’s unemployment rate rose 0.1 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted 8.6 percent according to the monthly report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state’s rate is slightly higher than the national average which remained at 8.2 percent.

A job fair in Detroit. Michigan added almost 20,000 manufacturing jobs in the last year.

Michigan’s unemployment has been trending downward since its seasonally adjusted peak of 14.2 percent in August 2009. Since June 2011, the state’s economy has added 51,500 jobs, which helped push the unemployment rate down by 2.0 percent, the third largest drop during that time period in the country.

The job force, which is the number of people either employed or actively looking for work, also has grown slightly in the past year, indicating that the better unemployment numbers are not primarily being driven by people leaving the workforce altogether.