Michigan and Ohio labor markets still struggling to recover

Snapshot for July 11, 2007.

Since November 2001, the end of the most recent recession, the economy has created more than 7 million new jobs—increasing employment by over 5%. Although this growth is not especially strong relative to past recoveries, and weak wage growth shows that the labor market is far from strong, it is growth.

However, the growth has not been evenly distributed throughout the country. Three states, in fact, have lost jobs since the recession ended: Massachusetts, Michigan, and Ohio. Massachusetts, though it has not yet broken even with November 2001 jobs levels, has seen consistent job growth since January of 2004.

But Michigan and Ohio have continued to lose jobs. The problem, not surprisingly, is in manufacturing. Michigan and Ohio have lost 159,000 and 136,000 manufacturing jobs, respectively, since November 2001 (see table below). Ohio's losses add up to just under 15% of the state's manufacturing jobs, while Michigan has lost about 20%—or one in five—of such jobs. Only California, a much bigger state, has lost a greater number of manufacturing jobs.

Job change by state since the end of the recession, November 2001-May 2007

	Total non-farm job change (in thousands)	Percent change	Manufacturing job change (in thousands)	Percent change
UNITED STATES	6,948	5.3%	-1,777	-11.2%



NORTHEAST	530	2.1%	-465	-17.1%
New England	67	1.0%	-146	-17.0%
Maine	12	2.0%	-11	-15.8%
New Hampshire	24	3.9%	-15	-16.4%
Vermont	8	2.5%	-8	-18.1%
Massachusetts	-20	-0.6%	-72	-19.4%
Rhode Island	23	4.8%	-14	-21.2%
Connecticut	20	1.2%	-26	-12.0%

Middle Atlantic	464	2.6%	-319	-17.2%
New York	211	2.5%	-125	-18.4%
New Jersey	99	2.5%	-67	-17.5%
Pennsylvania	153	2.7%	-127	-16.1%



MIDWEST	352	1.1%	-545	-11.1%
East North Central	-62	-0.3%	-483	-13.4%
Ohio	-57	-1.0%	-136	-14.9%
Indiana	69	2.4%	-37	-6.3%
Illinois	67	1.1%	-103	-13.2%
Michigan	-210	-4.7%	-159	-20.3%
Wisconsin	70	2.5%	-47	-8.6%


West North Central	414	4.2%	-62	-4.8%
Minnesota	113	4.2%	-23	-6.3%
Iowa	70	4.8%	1	0.5%
Missouri	95	3.5%	-33	-10.0%
North Dakota	29	8.9%	2	9.7%
South Dakota	32	8.4%	4	9.2%
Nebraska	41	4.5%	-7	-6.2%
Kansas	35	2.6%	-6	-3.2%


SOUTH	3,400	7.4%	*	*
South Atlantic	2,096	8.6%	*	*
Delaware	23	5.5%	*	*
Maryland	140	5.7%	-30	-18.1%
District of Columbia	40	6.1%	*	*
Virginia	281	8.0%	-45	-13.5%
West Virginia	25	3.4%	-11	-15.2%
North Carolina	245	6.4%	-125	-18.6%
South Carolina	120	6.6%	-58	-19.1%
Georgia	243	6.2%	-40	-8.2%
Florida	978	13.7%	-30	-7.1%

East South Central	357	4.8%	*	*
Kentucky	67	3.7%	-26	-9.1%
Tennessee	141	5.3%	-47	-10.7%
Alabama	113	6.0%	*	*
Mississippi	36	3.2%	-22	-11.1%

West South Central	948	6.8%	*	*
Arkansas	61	5.3%	-27	-12.4%
Louisiana	2	0.1%	-12	-7.2%
Oklahoma	65	4.4%	*	*
Texas	819	8.7%	-64	-6.4%


WEST	2,597	9.3%	*	*
Mountain	1,308	15.3%	*	*
Montana	54	13.9%	0	-0.5%
Idaho	89	15.8%	-1	-0.8%
Wyoming	36	14.6%	*	*
Colorado	120	5.5%	-25	-14.3%
New Mexico	88	11.6%	-2	-4.6%
Arizona	470	20.9%	-6	-3.3%
Utah	179	16.7%	10	8.4%
Nevada	271	26.1%	9	20.9%



Pacific	1,290	6.6%	*	*
Washington	245	9.2%	-14	-4.5%
Oregon	143	9.0%	-5	-2.4%
California	790	5.5%	-212	-12.4%
Alaska	30	10.3%	1	11.7%
Hawaii	82	15.0%	*	*



Source: Economic Policy Institute analysis of Current Employment Statistics survey data.
* Data not available.

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