It’s Labor Day but where’s the work?
It has not been an easy year for workers in Michigan.
The unemployment rate remains among the highest in the country. At 10.9 percent in July, it is the third highest. We can take some consolation in the fact that the rate has improved from 13.1 percent a year ago, when it was second-highest, and from 14.2 percent two years ago, when it led the nation.
But before we uncork the champagne (or whatever people drink at Labor Day picnics), we should be aware that 50 percent of unemployed workers in Michigan in 2010 were unemployed long-term (meaning more than 26 consecutive weeks). According to the League’s 2011 Labor Day Report (pdf), this share is higher than it was during any of the previous economic downturns—even the bad old days of 1982-1983, when the unemployment rate reached a jaw-dropping 15.5 percent.
There is also a disturbing racial disparity noted in the report: While the unemployment rate went down between 2009 to 2010 for white and Hispanic workers and for Michigan’s workforce as a whole, it rose sharply for African American workers. In 2010, 24 percent of African American workers—nearly one out of four—were unemployed, and the unemployed in four Detroit-area cities with African American majorities (Detroit, Highland Park, Pontiac and Inkster) accounted for 16 percent of all unemployed workers in Michigan.
The higher African American unemployment rate, while cause for great concern, is not surprising. Many African Americans live in concentrated urban areas where job seekers far outnumber the available jobs. In the Detroit area, there is insufficient public transportation from high-unemployment areas to the communities in which jobs may be available.
Educational levels among this population are also often a barrier to employment. In both good times and bad, people with low levels of education (those without a high school diploma or who have only a diploma and nothing more) have a higher rate of unemployment than those with some level of postsecondary training. As can be expected, the higher the level of one’s education, the less likely to be unemployed.
It is also true that communities with low levels of education are not as attractive to employers. It turns into a vicious cycle in which communities that are already disadvantaged in the labor market become more disadvantaged when the economy is bad.
Building occupational skills among Michigan’s low-skilled workers will not make all the jobs come back. We know that. But it will provide them with increased clout in the labor market and increase their likelihood of obtaining secure employment with a livable wage.
Building the occupational skills of low-skilled adults, and providing adult education to those not yet ready to participate in occupational training, is one way to help soften the effects of economic downturns on workers and make low-skilled communities—both rural and urban—more attractive to employers. That’s something for Michigan’s leaders to consider as they strategize on ways to get Michigan working again.
– Peter Ruark
