Michigan employment declines after Whitmer’s right-to-work repeal

Employment in Michigan has declined since Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Legislature repealed the state’s right-to-work law, effective January 2024.

Since the repeal, the state’s employment is down by 135,483 people, or 2.8%, according to data tracked by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Only Washington, D.C., and Vermont performed worse.

By contrast, Indiana increased employment by 1.9%, the eighth-best growth rate in the nation, while Kentucky employment grew by 1.2%, to put the Bluegrass State in 16th place. Both are right-to-work states.

Wisconsin, which enacted a right-to-work law in 2015, experienced a decline in employment, though at 0.9%, the drop was not as steep as Michigan’s. Wisconsin ranked 36th among the states in employment growth. Altogether, 26 states experienced an employment dip.

“Michigan traditionally sees larger employment losses compared to other states when the economy softens due to its reliance on auto manufacturing and durable goods manufacturing,” Chris Douglas, associate professor of economics at the University of Michigan-Flint, wrote in an email to Michigan Capitol Confidential.

“Research suggests that right-to-work states see employment gains compared to non right-to-work states,” he wrote, “so repealing right-to-work may have contributed to this as well.”

Douglas cautioned that it is difficult to disentangle right-to-work from other factors that influence job growth.

Michigan experienced measurable economic gains after enacting its right-to-work law in 2012.

But the state’s economic competitiveness is in decline, according to a report published by the American Legislative Exchange Council.

One of that study’s authors, Jonathan Williams, told Michigan Capitol Confidential that repealing right-to-work caused problems for the state’s economic competitiveness forecast.