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State Jobless Rate Drops

pjbaldes / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Michigan’s unemployment rate dropped four-tenths of a percentage point last month to eight-point-four percent.

MI’s 2013 jobless rate: 8.7 percent

By Rick Pluta

Michigan’s unemployment rate dropped four-tenths of a percentage point last month to eight-point-four percent.

While hiring is up, much of the decline in the rate is also due to people who’ve quit looking for jobs and are no longer measured as part of the workforce. 

The December number brings the state’s 2013 average unemployment rate to eight-point-seven percent. The annual rate has dropped in each of the past four years.

Officially, there are 394,000 unemployed people in Michigan. The average length of unemployment is 39 weeks. The combined rate of unemployment, people who’ve stopped looking, and under-employment is 15-point-three percent, which is also a drop from the previous year average of 16.6 percent.

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