CNNMONEY/TIME INC has solution for Detroiters looking for work: MOVE (Muskegon: sales, real estate)

[behindenemylines]

Detroit unemployment rate climbs, highest among large cities - Oct. 28, 2009

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Detroit continued to lead the nation's cities of 1 million people or more with the highest unemployment rate in September, according to government figures released Wednesday.

And for Detroit's painful unemployment rate to stabilize and eventually decline, economists say the jobless will just have to leave the Motor City.
The Labor Department said the metro area ravaged by the auto industry's collapse reported a 17.3% jobless rate in September, up from 17% in August, and 8.9% last year.

Detroit also recorded the largest jobless rate increase from September 2008 with 8.4 percentage points, followed by Muskegon-Norton Shores, Mich., at 6.8 percentage points.

"Detroit's labor market situation has deteriorated substantially from what was already a weak level," said John Lonski, a chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.

He said that the suffering experienced by Detroit's big three automakers -- Ford (F, Fortune 500), General Motors and Chrysler -- than what overall auto industry experienced, the slowest pace of auto sales since the 1960's.

"The only way to contract the city's unemployment rate is through migration," Lonski said. "The jobs that were lost aren't coming back like they will in other cities after the downturn, so the unemployed individuals will have to go elsewhere to find jobs, and that will help shrink Detroit's overall workforce."

The structural challenges and the shrinking of the auto giants in Detroit will force the entire city to downsize, Lonski said, as opposed to other areas where the housing market took a toll on unemployment but is bouncing back.

(There's a lot more if you click the link)

[junior 88 fan]

I think you could replace the word Detroit everytime it is used in the above article and replace it with Michigan and it would make equal sense, unfortunately.

[tmlynn]

This is a sad realilty. We relocated to TX a little over a year ago and boy, are we ever glad we did. My husband was employed by Beaumont and several of his co-workers have been laid off. We are making more money and living cheaper than we ever did. Unfortunately, if you didn't come here last summer you are out of luck for jobs.

[Indentured Servant]

I don’t want to discredit an argument based upon one thing wrong in it (Lord knows I make many myself), but why did they keep saying “CITY’, when they were using statistics for the Metro Area? Furthermore, its true that the “Detroit Area” has high unemployment, but there is hardly a metropolitan region of the country where job growth is creating a vacuum sound ready to suck up the unemployed from other regions of the country. It bothers me that this NATION is in DEEP economic dodo and articles like this seek to rearrange the seating on a sinking cruise ship. I guess its comforting to point out that the lower deck has taken more water than upper decks and that people in the lower decks should seek to move to higher decks, but all decks will eventually have the same fate as the lower and the upper decks have locked their doors to keep the water from the lower decks from flooding them.

I remember 3 or 4 years ago when Michigan’s unemployment was 6 or 7 percent whilst the rest of the nation was enjoying much better times. People were calling it a “one state recession”. Back then I kept telling people that Michigan was simply foreshadowing the fate of the nation. Again, 3 or 4 years ago 7% unemployment made Michigan doom and gloom in the minds of most. Now, the NATION is about to reach 10% point unemployment. Boom states like Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and the like have unemployment rates above the nation average. Hence, if there is NOT enough jobs for people already living in other states, how the hell are Michigan residents supposed to migrate to these place and find work?

Sure, as the theory goes that once the nation starts pulling out of the recession that other states will recover faster than Michigan. To that I call BS. This country is so in debt that there will be no REAL turn around for a decade or more. Other major nations are slowly moving away from using our currency to do business. Our currency is about to collapse from unsustainable levels of debt and unfunded liabilities. Every household of 4 in America already owed the government over 500,000 on the total debt. To service this growing debt means that much of government revenue in the future will go to paying the interest on this debt, which means a lack of money for other things. We as a nation continue to decline in “comparative advantage” in trade and economics. In other words, it just makes more sense and profitability to do business elsewhere than the US, in a growing number of industries and sectors. Iran will eventually get Nuclear weapons or there will be a military conflict to prevent it, in either scenario you can expect gas to reach over 5 dollars a gallon in the next few years. What impact do you think that will have on or national economy? State budgets are in crisis all over the country. State Pensions are in crisis all over the country. Commercial Real estate is on the brink of collapse like residential real estate. Out kids rank near the bottom, for industrialized societies, when it comes to math and science.

Please……America…..stop making yourself feel good by focusing your attention on the problems of Detroit and notice that you are connected to the same rope.

[MTUCache]

Originally Posted by tmlynn

This is a sad realilty. We relocated to TX a little over a year ago and boy, are we ever glad we did. My husband was employed by Beaumont and several of his co-workers have been laid off. We are making more money and living cheaper than we ever did. Unfortunately, if you didn't come here last summer you are out of luck for jobs.

Ain't that the truth. We got lucky finding a job out of state, and to be honest while people around Chicago definitely aren't feeling the pinch like Detroit is (and still spending money seemingly oblivious to their delicate perch), there's not any more jobs to be had here than there are in Detroit. My wife is an automotive engineer who would consider herself lucky to find even a part-time retail position at this point.

In fact, amazingly enough, even with all the bad press Detroit/Michigan has been getting, some people here are still convinced that it "can't" be worse in Detroit than it is in Chicago... I mean, how could it be?