Michigan is closing in on Nevada for the highest unemployment rate in the nation, ticking up to 5.5% in March as The Silver State shed a tenth of a percentage point to land at 5.7%.

As California’s unemployment rate held steady at 5.4%, and Kentucky’s declined from 5.4% to 5.2%, Michigan’s unemployment rate increased for the 12^th consecutive month in March to the second highest rate in the nation.

The tenth of a percentage point increase for March equates to another roughly 5,000 Michiganders out of a job.

Compared to the same month a year ago, there were 69,000 more unemployed residents in the Great Lakes State, a 32.9% increase.

In total, 279,000 Michiganders were unemployed last month, compared to 210,000 in March 2024.

The 1.3 percentage point increase in Michigan’s unemployment rate over the last year is the biggest in the nation, which had a jobless rate that jumped just 0.3% since March 2024. Michigan now has the highest unemployment rate since September 2021.

Nationally, unemployment increased by one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.2% in March, according to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget.

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“Michigan’s unemployment rate increased for the third consecutive month (of 2025) during March,” Wayne Rourke, labor market information director for Michigan’s Center for Data and Analytics, said in a statement. “Payroll jobs declined this month led by losses in the manufacturing and professional and business services sectors.”

Michigan lost 5,000 manufacturing jobs in March alone, 4,000 in professional and business services, and another 1,000 in the construction industry. The state gained 2,000 government jobs, and 1,000 each in retail, financial, leisure and hospitality, and other services, while other sectors remained unchanged.

The growth in government jobs came despite concerns about federal job cuts. Rourke told the Detroit Free Press Michigan’s gains involved state and local government, while federal cuts have had a minimal impact with just a few hundred jobs lost since the new year.

Data from the U.S. Department of Labor shows Michigan’s job losses are continuing into April with a 38% increase to 6,500 new unemployment claims last week compared to a year ago.

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The trend is also obvious in Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications to the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.

In April alone, a total of 1,349 workers have or will receive pink slips in Michigan from companies required by law to submit the WARN notices, though many aren’t required.

The notices are only necessary for facility closures that result in the loss of 50 or more employees in a month, or layoffs of 500 or more employees, or layoffs of more than 50 that impact a third or more of a company’s workforce.

The notices show Flagstar Bank will dismiss 424 employees from its facility in Troy by May 9, marking the company’s third round of layoffs in less than a year.

In an April 9 notice, Tribar Technologies announced it will close two auto finishing facilities in Wixom, and consolidate operations in Howell, laying off 188 workers by June 8.

Electric vehicle battery manufacturer Akasol Inc. will also cut 188 employees as it closes two facilities in Hazel Park and Warren by July, when it’s moving operations to South Carolina.

“We are projecting Michigan’s economic growth to slow substantially over the next two years, but we are not projecting an outright downturn,” read a Michigan economic outlook published by University of Michigan’s Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics in late February.

“We expect Michigan’s cyclical labor market to stabilize during the first half of 2025, as the broader economy adjusts to lower interest rates and rising tariffs, while the previous influx of international migrants continues to find work,” UM economists wrote. “However, we do not anticipate significant improvement beyond the first half of the year.”