Mixed Messaging In Michigan

Michigan just dropped its latest jobs report, and it's giving major mixed signals, like your phone warning your battery is low while also displaying your latest hilarious TikTok video on full brightness and volume. Overall, the state's economy is moving...but not much, and it's hard to tell if it's in the right direction. Here's a quick recap of how things are going.

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Here are Five Fast Facts on Michigan's latest economic numbers:

1. 💪 Tiny Flex - Michigan's combined unemployment rate for October and November 2025 is 5%. That's down 0.1 percentage points from September, and a nifty tiny flex for the state.

2. 👀 Healthy Place - A 5% unemployment rate is considered healthy by most economists. The conventional wisdom says the "natural" full-employment rate sits between 4% and 5%. Tell that to the people still looking for work!

3. 🤔 Wait, What? - Where it gets really interesting is that we see both a small increase in people working and in people leaving the workforce entirely. This means net growth is basically zero.

4. 🤦 New Normal - Slow job growth is the new normal because of a slow-growing population and an aging workforce putting a "speed limit" on how fast things can grow. Think speed permanent bumps and rumble strips. Ugh.

5. 👍 Laser Focus - But don't worry, your elected lawmakers are laser focused on all the right stuff, like making sure bots don't buy too many T-Swift concert tickets. No, really.

🔥Bottom line: So here’s the deal: Michigan’s unemployment number technically improved, but the story isn’t clear because some numbers say one thing and others say another. And this may be just how it is going forward - not awesome but not terrible, either. Um, yay...?

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