(The Center Square) – Unemployment is increasing in Michigan, rising to the highest unemployment reported in the state since September 2021.
The jobless rate is among the highest in the nation.
Michigan’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate rose by 0.1% to 5.4% in February, according to recently-released data from the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget.
In total, the report found unemployment in the state increased by 6,000 in February, while employment increased by 2,000.
“The state’s unemployment rate has gone up slightly in the first two months of the year, mainly due to a rise in the number of unemployed people,” said Wayne Rourke, labor market information director for Michigan’s Center for Data and Analytics.
Michigan’s unemployment is also significantly higher than the national average.
While the national unemployment rate increased in February at the same rate as Michigan’s, it only rose to 4.1% compared to Michigan’s 5.4%.
In the past year, the national unemployment rate increased by just 0.2%, compared to Michigan’s increase of 1.4% since February 2024.
According to recently-updated data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan has the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation. Only Nevada has a higher unemployment rate.
Michigan is tied with Washington D.C. and California at 5.4%, with Nevada coming in at 5.8%. Neighboring states like Wisconsin (3.2%) and Ohio (4.7%) consistently report lower unemployment than the Great Lakes State.
While Democrats point fingers for the increases to economic concerns over recent issues like tariffs, Republicans in the state argue it’s the fault of the state’s Democrat leadership.
“Michigan’s unemployment rate is back to COVID levels yet our governor is busy doing a world wide media tour. Priorities,” said state Sen. Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Twp.
Over the past year, Michigan has been losing jobs in industries like trade, transportation, and utilities, while government and private education and health services jobs saw major employment increases.
Manufacturing jobs did see a slight recovery in February, after four months of declining employment.
The first few months of the Trump administration has been generally rocky for consumer sentiment, which continued to drop nationally in February, sliding nearly 10% from January. This is according to final results from the University of Michigan’s national February Survey of Consumers.
The survey pointed to economic concerns as driving that drop in consumer sentiment – concerns that were most pronounced among Democrats and Independents.
It highlighted that those concerns can sometimes become a “self-fulfilling” prophecy.
“Expectations matter because consumers have shown that they will act upon them,” the survey reported.
That could be problematic in the coming months as “more than half of consumers expect unemployment to rise over the next year, the highest since 2020 during the pandemic recession.”
