[HockeyFan]

Well, I am considering moving TO Michigan for a lot of reasons....

1) Friendly, down-to-earth people
2) Great hockey market
3) Unbelievably affording housing (too much so, perhaps)
4) Natural scenery of the great lakes
5) Proximity to much of the eastern part of the US and Canada

And yes, I do believe it will turn around. The house prices are so, so cheap that it will start to draw more young people from various states. The prices will rise, but so will the city's profile.

Far more than the past, many people can work where they choose -- more people work from home than in past generations. And eventually, I believe Michigan will become a destination, not a place where people are leaving.

[MichiganMovesSouth]

I hope you are right.

Welcome (if you come!) - there really are some wonderful places to live in MI, as you can see from some other posts

[cardwellave]

I just looked at the site with all the unemployment rate stats. The least was Ann Arbor at 4.2%, then Kalamazoo at 4.9%, then Lansing at 5.1% (kind of surprising), Holland/Grand Haven at 5.2%, Grand Rapids/Wyoming at 5.3%, Battle Creek at 5.9%, Niles/Benton Harbor at 5.9%, Monroe at 6.4%, Jackson at 6.5%, Muskegon/Norton Shores at 6.5%, Bay City at 6.6%, Detroit/Warren/Livonia at 6.9%, Saginaw at 7.3%, and at the bottom Flint at 9.2%.

Statistics for April rate Michigan having the most employment, just behind Alaska.

Some of those cities are surprisingly low IMO. Sort of interesting.

[mackinac81]

I just looked at the site with all the unemployment rate stats. The least was Ann Arbor at 4.2%, then Kalamazoo at 4.9%, then Lansing at 5.1% (kind of surprising), Holland/Grand Haven at 5.2%, Grand Rapids/Wyoming at 5.3%, Battle Creek at 5.9%, Niles/Benton Harbor at 5.9%, Monroe at 6.4%, Jackson at 6.5%, Muskegon/Norton Shores at 6.5%, Bay City at 6.6%, Detroit/Warren/Livonia at 6.9%, Saginaw at 7.3%, and at the bottom Flint at 9.2%.

Statistics for April rate Michigan having the most employment, just behind Alaska.

Some of those cities are surprisingly low IMO. Sort of interesting.

Thanks for bringing this up. You see, this is the problem when people look at unemployment rates for a whole state. The rest of the U.S hears that Michigan has the highest unemployment rate and then dismiss us all as an economic backwater. As a result they don't see the areas within a state that may be at or below the national average. Again this shows that you can't paint one state with a broad brush.

I was surprised about Lansing too, but flint?? I didn't realise it was that bad. I really hope the East side can turn around someday. It would really help all of us.

P.S. Can you post the link on the thread? I'd like to see where other cities rank.

[HockeyFan]

Thanks for the welcome! And those unemployment rates don't look as bad as I thought they might -- the media does seem to exaggerate a lot of things these days.

[cardwellave]

Unemployment Rates for Metropolitan Areas

I just hit Ctrl+F and searched for "MI".

[SALteacher]

Like many who have posted here I don't want to leave the state either. Look at my caption below my SALteacher name and that says it all. However I am a realist. When I'm done school less than a year from now I know I will have to consider job opportunities outside of the state. Teaching jobs are in very short supply here. I'm not 24 years old and really can't afford to wait around for jobs to pop up. Meanwhile student loans come due and no full time job..the equation isn't a good one. If we leave I will dearly miss this state. We've lived here for 15 years. The best years of our lives. Our daughter was born here. I consider this my home instead of my native Canada.

[TiredNomad82]

Originally Posted by MichiganMovesSouth

I just want to make a good decision before I have kids - I don't want to bring kids up in a struggling economy so I'm really hoping it will turn around in the next 5-10 years.

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts on this!

Sounds like we're a little similar. My husband and I just passed our 1 yr anniversary this week. We don't have kids but are planning to in the near future (well, 1-2 more years). We are living near Bay City and are miserable. I also feel like I don't want to start a family here (meaning this area).

After a long job search my husband found a position that he accepted in North Carolina. We weren't purposely trying to move out of state, but I feel that it will be a great change since we find much of Michigan depressing. We always thought we'd be happy enough if we moved to Ann Arbor but that's not how things went.

I will miss some of our little Michigan adventures we've had over the years, but I'm looking forward to the future very much now.

[SALteacher]

Originally Posted by TiredNomad82

Sounds like we're a little similar. My husband and I just passed our 1 yr anniversary this week. We don't have kids but are planning to in the near future (well, 1-2 more years). We are living near Bay City and are miserable. I also feel like I don't want to start a family here (meaning this area).

After a long job search my husband found a position that he accepted in North Carolina. We weren't purposely trying to move out of state, but I feel that it will be a great change since we find much of Michigan depressing. We always thought we'd be happy enough if we moved to Ann Arbor but that's not how things went.

I will miss some of our little Michigan adventures we've had over the years, but I'm looking forward to the future very much now.

Good luck. I hear there are many former Michigan residents living in NC so don't be surprised if you bump into a few.

[michiganirish]

Originally Posted by mackinac81

Thanks for bringing this up. You see, this is the problem when people look at unemployment rates for a whole state. The rest of the U.S hears that Michigan has the highest unemployment rate and then dismiss us all as an economic backwater. As a result they don't see the areas within a state that may be at or below the national average. Again this shows that you can't paint one state with a broad brush.

As a lifetime Michiganders my husband and I left the state after he lost his job and spent almost 2 years looking for work. (we went through our retirement savings and ended up losing our home, which was only 8 years from being paid for)

The numbers quoted are based on the number of people that are collecting unemployment, right? What about those individuals that have used up their benefits?

My belief that the numbers are higher than what is recorded.

It broke our hearts to leave our home, family and friends, but we had no choice. I know Michigan will turn around but I don't expect it to happen for at least 8 to 10 years.