Michigan's unemployment rate will top 15% through 2011, U-M economic forecast says

Gee Nathan just like i said would happen.How can anyone be shocked by this uncarring state.

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Not too surprising. This State will be a vacation and agricultural economy. Industry is not welcome and will not be coming back. Population is declining (we may well lose another Congressional seat after the 2010 census).

Many thanks to all who helped kill the economy. Equal blame goes to business, labor, government, and Toyota owners. Most of all the financial wizards who thought we could run a manufacturing economy on credit.

2 more years of contraction brings us a total of 11 years of continuous job losses. Both political party can share the blame on this because we can not afford to work as cheaply as the modern slave owners(wall street)would like. Time to eliminate all tax subsidies to any and all corporations(corporate welfare)....they have lost the right to reach into the taxpayers pockets while we have thousands losing their homes.We need a organized workers revolution!!!!!!

In the state of Michigan, can 200 people do enough local shopping and generate enough local economic activity to create one more job?
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If so, then Michigan has the potential to lower its unemployment rate (UR) 1%…..by shopping locally. Below is an analysis of mostly graphs that provides a starting set of numbers that can be used to create 'paycheck creation' programs.
(It is not the jobs that are important. It is the paycheck that are important.)
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http://paycheckeconomics.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/michigan-1-unemployment-rate-reduction-06-09_r0.pdf
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For example, if you want to create jobs that pay $12/hour or $480/week, that factors out to $1.50 to $2,50 weekly, on a per capita basis, depending on the Michigan county. With a retail program where 10% of the sales price of some goods or services went to locally originated, paycheck creation fund, it would require that the average person spend $15 to $25 weekly at local businesses.
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In Michigan, that would create approximately 50,000 jobs.
JK

@John Galt: I agree with your prediction, and that will also mean the loss of an electoral vote. This leads to a reduction in our significance and relevance at the national level.

Most of the states that have been experiencing growth in jobs the last 10 years are right to work states. Let's face it. Manufacturing business won't come to Michigan because they don't want to deal with the UAW. We may not like it but we all know it is true.

We either help those who actually hire workers to move TO this state and hire more, or WE move to those states that have job-makers hiring.

We have seen, in 8 years of governing, what Lansing has been able to do under Granholm and I am pretty tired of it (and in Ann Arbor things are not even HALF as bad as the rest of the state). Everyone knew the Auto's were falling away - the market share of the "not-so-Big 3" has been in free fall since the mid 80's.

Where is the diversification in this state? Where are the jobs? The Michigan TAX BASE is being slaughtered and Lansing asks for MORE taxes and regulations.

Your property values and tax revenues, in general, will not return until the "hiring climate" turns the corner and people move back to this state.

Right to work states like South Carolina aren't doing so well and seeing how you (topcat) are so against organized labor I'm sure you are happy to work weekends,holidays and forgo any other benefits you get thanks to the labor movement.

Dearest uawisok. I regret to say that The Battle of The Overpass was 72 years ago. We really need to focus on present and future creation on jobs in Michigan. I eagerly await any thoughts, suggestions and comments on how we can incentivize corporations and entepreneurs to maintain and create jobs in Michigan.

I like Basic Bob's remark about Toyota owner's ruining Michigan's economy. I came here because of the Totoyta Techinical Center Located in Ann Arbor. How many employees does it employe? How much tax revenue does it gennerate? Thank God they decided to locate and expand here instead of another state.

The Detroit Free Press did a Toyota Technical Center story last year; the link I have went bad, but the Ann Arbor Chronicle wrote a clip, which you can read at

http://annarborchronicle.com/2008/11/23/a2-auto-industry-27/

Here's a story I wrote in May discussing the auto crisis' impact on the Toyota Technical Center:

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2009/05/toyota_quietly_pounded_by_the.html

Basic Bob

I hope you're including GM, Ford, and Chrysler as part of your "equal blame" remark while you bash anyone who drives a foreign car. The Big Three's insane outsourcing hasn't exactly helped the local economy.

And while you bash people who drive foreign cars I am perfectly happy with my 2004 VW Jetta that after 95k miles just had its first brake pad, rotor, and timing belt repair, while my wife's 2007 Ford Escape has already gone through two brake repairs and a new transmission.

"suggestions and comments on how we can incentivize corporations and entepreneurs to maintain and create jobs in Michigan" what a joke...corporations are all about "what have you done for me lately" and their collective is as short sighted as the last quarters finacials or the electorate that bring these snake oil salesmen and saleswomen into public office.

As far as foreign cars, they are all fine by me as long as they are not made by Toyota. To me they are the walmart of industry, laying waste to the US economy with Japanese government backing. I'm happy for the few hundred people in Michigan with good-paying Toyota jobs, but this is a fraction of a percent of the state's economy.

Did U-M economists Joan Crary, Don Grimes and Fulton predict the current economical situation a couple years ago? Why not? How did they get so smart so quick?

To the two complaining about Toyota and foreign carmakers in general....Kind of interesting that Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, soon to be VW (again) build MORE vehicles in the US than the Big Three do....Toyota has the tech center in Ann Arbor, Mazda and Hyundai also have small facilities in the Ann Arbor area, VW has a design center in California....where did the Big Three send so many jobs to????? MEXICO. Why? To maximize their profits by cutting their labor costs, as well as outsourcing components to foreign companies, costing even more jobs. Why do the foreign carmakers build so many vehicles in the US? NAFTA.....they can avoid serious import tariffs by building vehicles in the US, while Ford, GM, and Chrysler were maximizing their profits by sending jobs to Mexico, cutting out the (in many cases, but not all) ridiculously overpaid UAW workers, while giving their own CEO's and board members outrageous salaries and bonuses year after year. I've heard the other argument too, that by buying a foreign car, your money is going overseas....well, to an extent, yes....but all of the foreign carmakers operate US divisions, where MOST of the profit stays here in the states, while giving jobs to US workers (mostly non-union, but jobs, nonetheless). What have the Big Three done? Sent YOUR jobs south of the border, put YOU out of work, but kept the profits here in the US, which YOU haven't seen, because the legacy union costs, CEO salaries, and bonuses have taken most of it!!!!!