Michigan Unemployment Claims Set Record Low

The state of Michigan set a record for the lowest number of initial claims for unemployment insurance during the week of Aug. 24. Only 3,791 claims were filed that week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

To put that number in perspective, for the week of Jan. 10, 2009, in the middle of the Great Recession, 76,702 people submitted a claim. In the week of Jan. 24, 2009, there were 363,212 people receiving unemployment benefits in Michigan. On the week starting Sept. 7, 2019, there were 3,988 initial claims put in, the most recent data available. There were 35,946 people receiving unemployment benefits for the week of Sept. 7, 2019.

Michigan’s unemployment rate fell to 4.2% in August 2019, according to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget. The National Federation for Independent Business reported in August that 37% of U.S. small business owners had job openings they could not fill the previous month, a new high for this survey.