2014 Was a Great Year for Adding Jobs in Michigan

When it comes to the number of new jobs created in Michigan, 2014 was the best in 20 years.

The number of unemployed people dropped by 71,000, or 17.2 percent, from 2013 to 2014. Total employment rose by 98,000, or 2.3 percent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does two monthly unemployment surveys. The Current Population Survey (CPS) is known as the “household survey” and the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey is known as the “payroll survey,” because it surveys businesses.

University of Michigan economist Don Grimes says the “payroll survey” has been shortchanging Michigan of jobs in its initial reports, which are later revised to show greater job creation when more data is collected months later.

“The household employment survey shows that 138,000 more people were employed in December 2014 than were employed in December 2013,” Grimes said. “These data show employment gains that are much higher than the CES establishment survey, but the CES data have been shown to be consistently underestimating employment growth in Michigan. The household survey also includes self-employed individuals; if we are enjoying a boom in people starting their own business, these jobs would show up in the household survey, but not in the establishment survey. It looks like Michigan had a great year of job growth in 2014.”

According to the household survey, 2014 was the best year for job recovery since 1994. From December 2013 to December 2014, Michigan added 137,370 jobs. The last time Michigan added more jobs from December to December was in 1994, when the state added 139,360 jobs.