Michigan may be slowly awaking from its economic nightmare.

The Michigan economy is expected to add 20,000 jobs in 2011, ending a streak of 10 straight years in which the state economy shed jobs, according to a forecast released today by University of Michigan economists.

The forecast, a revised version of the U-M forecast for the state released in November, carries a cautious sense of optimism. Economists George Fulton and Joan Crary had predicted in November that the state's unemployment rate would average 15.8 percent in 2010 and 15.4 percent in 2011.

But they now say that the Michigan unemployment rate will average 14.1 percent in 2010 and 13.7 percent in 2011. The rate stood at 14.1 percent in February, according to the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth.

The state will add some 20,000 jobs in 2011 after losing about 39,000 in 2010 and a disastrous 230,000 in 2009, according to the new U-M forecast. Michigan lost close to 1 million jobs over the last decade.

The projected job growth in 2011 is attributed to an additional 26,000 positions in the health care industry, the professional and business services field and private education. (See Ann Arbor's Top 10 hottest jobs of 2010.)

The public sector will shed about 17,000 jobs in 2010 and 2011. The meltdown in the manufacturing sector will slow as the major automakers' finances stabilize and consumers creep back into the market for new vehicles.

The manufacturing sector will lose only 9,000 jobs in 2010 and another 9,000 in 2011, according to the forecast, after losing 152,000 over the last two years.

The forecast comes after Fulton and U-M economist Don Grimes predicted last week that the Washtenaw County economy would also start to add jobs in 2011.

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