Michigan Unemployment Rate Passes 15%; Highest in Country

The Michigan state unemployment rate passed 15% according to a report. This makes the Michigan unemployment rate the highest for any state since March of 1984. In another sign that the economy has been very tough on the states of the Midwest, Michigan has a reported unemployment rate of 15.2% as of Friday. That puts the Michigan unemployment has the highest of the 50 states, reaching the 15% mark for the first time since West Virginia had an unemployment rate just over 15% back in 1984.

The Michigan unemployment rate comes from a report that the Labor Department has released. In that report, it doesn't show Michigan as standing alone with a bad unemployment rate, but rather that several states are climbing to unemployment rates that they wouldn't be proud to advertise. Through June, several other states were having a rise in unemployment rates, with a total of 15 states and the District of Columbia all having unemployment rates that are at 10% or more. The trend also shows that the unemployment rates could get worse before they get better in some states.

Another anecdote from the report from the United States Labor Department was that six states recorded record-high unemployment rates in June, putting them in territory that these state governments have never had to deal with. Jobless rates increased in 38 states and the District of Columbia, with Michigan being the highest increase rising 1.1%, followed closely by Wyoming, whose unemployment rate went p 0.9%. This state rise in unemployment levels led to the inevitable rise of the national unemployment rate as well. Through the month of June, the national unemployment rate sits at 9.5%, marking the ninth straight month that the national unemployment rate has gone up. Putting that into numbers, during the first half of 2009, nearly 3.4 million jobs have been lost across the country.

The news wasn't bleak for every state though, as five states were able to decrease their unemployment rates, including North Dakota which dropped to 4.2%, and Nebraska, which sits at 5%. Following the 15.2% unemployment rate in Michigan are Rhode Island with 12.4%, Oregon with 12.2%, South Carolina with 12.1%, Nevada with 12%, and California with 11.6%. These are tough numbers for a lot of states to have to deal with, but by far Michigan has seen the worst of all the unemployment rates rising. One of the major factors to the rise of unemployment in Michigan is the failure of several car companies that are translating into a trickledown effect in those economies.

Source: CNN Money