Detroit Job Market

Detroit has taken the cake as the city with the worst unemployment rate in the nation.  Without a doubt, the bankruptcy and restructuring of the auto industry, which occurred in early 2009 is one huge reason for this.  Another reason for this abnormally high unemployment rate is the fact that many of the suppliers, producers, and marketing firms that once helped support the automakers no longer have any business to keep them afloat.  So the entire chain of auto-related industries and sectors has fallen like a set of dominoes on this Michigan city.

Before the recession, Detroit had already seen some very severe outsourcing cutbacks and layoffs.  During the 1990’s and early 2000’s, Detroit went from producing 1 out of every 4 cars in the world to 1 out of every 8.  The demand for American made vehicles has never been lower, and neither have the hopes of those once employed in the auto industry in Detroit and around America.

Detroit is also home to one of the worst real estate disasters since Hurricane Katrina.  Over 80,000 commercial sites are abandoned and tens of thousands of homes are undergoing foreclosure or have already been foreclosed on.  The city’s economy has ground to a halt, and the welfare and education services sector is having a very tough time dealing with the ensuing flood of people looking for unemployment or other government benefits.

As for the state of Michigan, it is widely known that Detroit is the snake’s head so to speak.  Michigan goes where Detroit goes, and with an unemployment rate now over 22%, Detroit is going in the wrong direction.  Even those in rural areas are feeling the pain.  The entire state’s economy was built upon the auto industry.  Even the steel mills and tire plants are shut down, their workers sent home with layoff notices and closure announcements.  This is the part of the country that has been hit the hardest by the recession, and it shows.

Michigan is not the place to go right now if you’re looking to transplant yourself to a new state in search of employment.  But the state of Michigan, eager to try and kick-start their economy, would rather have you believe the opposite.  Michigan is one of the first in a long line of states with struggling economies that is trying to attract new business to its cities and towns.  Diversifying and freshening the economy is something that many successful cities have done over the past couple of decades and it has certainly proven to help beat back the negative effects of the recession.

So perhaps Michigan is, after all, the place to go if you’re looking to restart your life or occupation.  It is very well possible that Michigan will be the place that will reinvent itself into a high tech or business hub of the future.  Something needs to be done to stop the economic and unemployment bleeding, and if more Americans would invest in this city, it will be better equipped to dig itself out of this mess and survive the next big recession.