In a recent editorial, the Detroit Free Press’ Stephen Henderson criticizes policymaking that was supposed to spur job creation, saying that instead “the unemployment has creeped down at alarmingly slow rates.”
ForTheRecord says: The drop in the state's unemployment rate from 14.9 percent in June 2009 to 5.4 percent in April 2015 has been among the quickest and steepest drops in Michigan going back to 1976, which is the farthest back comparable monthly data is available.
In October 1982, the state's unemployment rate was 16.5 percent. It took the state until December 1988 to get unemployment down to 6.9 percent, which mirrors the 9.5 percent drop from 2009 to 2015.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.