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07/31/2007Jobless rates rise throughout the region in JuneTRAVERSE CITY — Area jobless rates for June were up significantly from the summer of 2006, following a state-wide trend where fewer summer jobs were available for a growing number of Michigan residents looking for work. State Department of Labor analysts said a slumping construction sector is among the reasons that summer jobless rates remain high around the state during the summer period when they typically trend downward because of higher seasonal employment. "The biggest thing to point to is construction employment,” said Jim Rhein, an economic analyst for the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth. "We didn't get the normal seasonal uptick in that sector ... it seems to be systematic for the whole state.” Construction jobs across the state increased by around 5,000 in June from a month earlier, state officials said, but those gains were less than normal in most of the state's labor markets. Total construction jobs in Michigan are down around 17,000 since last June, and Rhein said the manufacturing and retail sales sectors remain "sluggish.” The June unemployment rate for the 10-county northwest Michigan area stood at 6.8 percent, up from last June's 6.2 percent total. The jobless rate dropped slightly from 7 percent in May. In the northeast Michigan region, which includes Cheboygan, Crawford and Otsego counties, June's unemployment rate was 8.4 percent which was the highest among Michigan's 17 major labor markets. The rate was unchanged from May and up from 7.6 percent in June of 2006. State-wide, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for June totaled 7.4 percent, up from May's rate of 6.6 percent and from last June's figure of 6.9 percent. Jobless totals are up in 72 of Michigan's 83 counties since last June.
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