The focal point of Rick Snyder’s campaign for governor was jobs. Six months into his first year, the Republican Governor was under attack by the state Democrats in a TV ad that stated: “Six months in office … thousands of jobs eliminated… ZERO jobs created.”
But the Bureau of Labor Statistics now says otherwise.
Michigan added 18,000 jobs in June, which was the third highest in the country. Texas led the nation with 32,000 additional jobs and California was second at 28,800 jobs. The state-by-state comparisons were released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Don Grimes, a University of Michigan economist, said that 10,200 of Michigan’s 18,000 added jobs were in government.
“The 8,000 private sector payroll jobs gains in Michigan was a really good number, so don’t look at the unemployment rate,” Grimes said in an e-mail.
In December of 2010 (the month before Snyder took office), there were 540,512 unemployed people in Michigan and the state had an unemployment rate of 11.1 percent.
In June, Michigan’s unemployed had dropped to 496,000 and the unemployment rate was at 10.5 percent. The state’s unemployment rate was as low as 10.2 percent in April, 2011.
Michigan has added 53,000 jobs in 2011, a 1.4 percent increase since December 2010, according to James Hohman, assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
But Hohman said Snyder’s impact on job creation won’t be felt until he’s been in office at least two years. For example, Hohman said that the Snyder administration’s repeal of the controversial Michigan Business Tax won’t even take effect until January.
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.