A new report from WalletHub ranks Michigan in the number one spot nationally for individual unemployment claims per 100,000 workforce members last week.
Michigan also placed second in the nation for its 37.97% increase over the previous week. That increase is 210.88% higher than last year.
Michigan registered an altogether poor performance against the other 49 states and the District of Columbia. Not only did it rank first in the Unemployment Claims Increase vs. Same Week Last Year and Unemployment Claims per 100,000 People in Labor Force categories, it placed third highest in the Unemployment Claims Increase versus Previous Week category and fifth in Cumulative Unemployment Claims in 2024 versus Same Period Last Year category.
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WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on changes in unemployment insurance initial claims for several key weeks in order to identify where unemployment claims are increasing the most. WalletHub also considered the number of claims per people in the labor force.
According to the study, the U.S. job market has experienced a 6% increase in unemployment claims week-over-week on July 22. It calculates that 6.8 million Americans are currently unemployed.
“Until we see lower inflation and interest rates, I predict that companies will hire when they have a need but will be cautious with expansion plans, keeping job gains low. I also predict we will see lower quit rates and employees staying longer in jobs, especially for non-entry-level jobs,” Rita Shea-Van Fossen, associate professor of Management at the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova Southeastern University, said in a statement.
“I believe people will be reluctant to change jobs if the new job requires a location change,” Shea-Van Fossen continued. “With real estate prices still high in many parts of the country and high-interest rates, it means selling a house and replacing it in a new city would most likely result in increased costs. This will keep many people in the jobs they have, even if they find themselves in a less-than-ideal situation.”
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Michigan ranked higher than other top-ranking states for new unemployment claims, including Washington, Iowa, Alaska, Oregon, Delaware, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Missouri. Michigan’s number-one ranking was a 10-fold difference over South Dakota, which was ranked at 51.
Michigan unemployment isn’t likely to improve over the long term after the state Supreme Court ruled this week against the adopt and amend strategy employed by Republicans to limit the potential economic damage from a 2018 ballot measure to increase the minimum wage and ensure “subminimum” tipped workers’ income equals hourly wages.
“We’ve seen it before in states like California where wages are set by mandate and the outcome never favors workers,” Rep. Luke Meerman, R-Coopersville, said in a statement. “Closures, layoffs, reduced hours and self-serve kiosks are what is to come from the policies behind the so called “adopted and amended” proposals the Legislature acted upon. This is a strike against the citizen-lead Legislature and a tremendous overstep of the judicial branch.”
Michigan ranked third behind Missouri and Massachusetts in the Change in the Number of Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims latest week versus previous week category, but placed first in the latest week versus same week in 2023 category.
WalletHub notes that unemployment rates are rising more rapidly in predominantly Blue states such as Michigan than Red states. The report designates states that voted predominantly Democratic in the 2020 election as Blue, and designates states that voted predominantly Republican in the same election as Red. Blue states’ unemployment rates outpace Red states by a margin of nearly 12 percentage points.