Michigan a top 10 state — for not creating jobs

While the number of jobs in the United States is up 1.2% over the past two years, Michigan’s employment growth has remained stagnant, according to an expert in the state economy.

Employment in Michigan is down by 30,700 people, a 0.6% loss, according to James Hohman, fiscal policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. The state, he told Michigan Capitol Confidential recently, ranks sixth-worst in the nation over the same period.

Only Washington, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wyoming fared worse.

In a recent statement, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer equated job announcements to jobs created.

“Since I took office, we have announced 38,000 new auto jobs and driven unemployment to historic lows,” the governor announced in June. Though Whitmer has tried to grow Michigan's economy through subsidies to private companies, those efforts have failed to generate employment growth. The state has lost 9,500 auto jobs since Whitmer took office.

The number of people who are of working age and actively seeking work has fallen for five months straight as of August. Coincidentally, the total decline in labor force since March, announced in a recent news release from the Department of Technology, Management, and Budget, is 38,000, the same as the number of putative auto jobs Whitmer announced in her June statement. That is around 0.7% of Michigan's labor force.

Whitmer, who has shown a keen interest in economic development junketeering, cast herself as a creator of statewide employment in a Sept. 16 speech titled ”Protect and Defend Michigan’s Economy.”

“I went on an economic mission that led to the creation or retention of nearly 1,000 good-paying jobs in Michigan ... 450 in Auburn Hills, 200 in Wixom, 150 in Zeeland, and a $200 million boost to our state economy,” Whitmer stated.

“Job announcements are not actual jobs, and the governor consistently pretends that there are actual jobs coming from her job announcements,” said Hohman in an email to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

The Mackinac Center’s Hohman is skeptical. Only 9% of jobs mentioned in announcements, he said, turn into actual jobs.

“Her SOAR deals promised 14,779 jobs and haven’t delivered any so far, despite costing taxpayers $720 million,” he added.

He concluded that the state also ranks 15th in growth for jobs added.

Whitmer did not respond to an email seeking comment.