Posted on 10/21/2014 5:28:57 AM PDT by MichCapCon
When the Great Recession hit the U.S. in December of 2007, state economies buckled.
But in the four years preceding it Michigan was the only state to lose jobs overall. The state lost 148,100 jobs from 2003 through 2007 while the U.S. added 7.6 million jobs.
Over the entire decade, from 2000 to 2009, the state lost 805,900 jobs, or 1 in every 6 – a 17.2 percent reduction in employment. The next closest state to bleed that many jobs was Ohio, which lost 9.9 percent of its jobs in those years.
Nationwide, the U.S. began the decade with modest declines in employment, but then job growth picked up strongly through 2007. It fell off a cliff in 2008 and 2009; overall, the U.S. lost 786,000 jobs from 2000 to 2009. While the Great Recession job loss in the United States was bad, Michigan’s decline began much earlier and was catastrophic. The Wolverine State lost more jobs over the decade than the net job loss for the entire nation
Christopher Douglas, an associate professor of economics at University of Michigan-Flint, said Gov. Granholm's policies were highly counter-productive.
But it is just so hard to know exactly how many job losses are attributable to her policies, Douglas said. "I think you can make convincing arguments that the yearly budget crisis and can-kicking contributed to job losses, as businesses hate uncertainty, as well as diverting state resources towards crony capitalist endeavors such as movie studios, green energy, and so forth."
Douglas placed most of the blame for job losses on the rising gas prices that choked demand for SUVs and the major auto companies being caught flat-footed to the changing consumer preferences as legacy costs started to kick in.
"The sheer magnitude of the poor management at these companies is staggering," Douglas said.
The state auto manufacturing sector played a role in Michigan recession, but possibly less than many imagine. The state lost 219,000 jobs in the "transportation equipment manufacturing" category, which represented about two-thirds of Michigan jobs in that sector, but this was just 27 percent of the Michigan's overall job loss during the decade.
The state has emerged from the recession with a more diverse job market. The auto industry accounted for one of every 13.5 jobs in Michigan in 2000, but just one in 24.5 jobs in 2014.
The “Blown away” decade.
Michigan, and America, need to re-industrialize.
We have sent American factories everywhere, and we have sent FAR too many to China.
Bring them back to America. Buy American. And stop buying everything from China.
Granholm was a disaster. Foreign born, socialist, Obama lite.
The “glory days” of the one state recession.
And you will still find foaming at the mouth lefties that will swear that things today are the worse its ever been because of the state GOP.
However, not one seems to ever wish to go back to the days of Gov. Grandmole.
Things obviously aren’t as great as I would like but they are considerably better under GOP control of the state. Imagine how things would be booming with conservative GOP control of the federal government.
It's far better for business and the welfare agencies...The working man/woman, not so much...
At least with Jimmy Carter’s malaise,
he was only a one term president,
and Reagan was able to bring us out.
We’ve got a long rope to climb to get out of THIS pit.
We also got John Engler during the Reagan era and he was very good for the state.
I was one. The day I lost mine, I came home and told my wife we had no choice but to move out of state. Took 6 months but I got a good position in Baltimore. When we left, our cars had bit signs on the back that said “Another Michigan Family BLOWN AWAY. Thanks Jenny”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.