The Michigan jobs report released Wednesday shows the state’s unemployment rate dropped by one-tenth of a percentage point in May, bringing the rate to 5.4%.
While the news overall was mixed, the state did pass a couple of benchmarks.
The modest adjustment in the rate marked the first time in two years that the unemployment rate improved instead of increasing or remaining stagnant.
“I think what most analysts would like to see would be some actual job growth, and we did have a lot of job growth coming out of the COVID recession, but then in the last two years, not so much,” said retired Michigan State University professor Charles Ballard, an expert on the state’s jobs picture.
The big driver of the May breakthrough is growth in the leisure and hospitality sector. Labor Market Information Director Wayne Rourke told Michigan Public Radio this the first time that sector posted pre-pandemic numbers.
“It lost almost 250,000 jobs in the first few months, so getting that industry back to pre-pandemic levels has been a four-year journey, five-year journey here,” he said. “Seeing that recover finally is really good news for May.”
Rourke said leisure and hospitality was also the final sector measured by the state to move into recovery territory since the end of the pandemic.
Construction and private education and health also showed growth in May. Employment in Michigan’s critical manufacturing sector remained roughly the same from April to May.
