More than $570 million has been spent on unemployment benefits in the state of Michigan over the last month for state programs and federal programs.

Norm Isotalo, spokesman for the Unemployment Insurance Agency, said from the four-week period between June 12 and July 3, $577.1 million was paid in state programs and federal programs for unemployment.

He said on average, there was a 90 percent average increase in people getting unemployment compared to a year ago.

“It’s somewhat because of plant closings and layoffs, especially in the auto industry. As we all know, that hit hard,” he said.

Isotalo said by the end of this year, there could be trouble for many unemployed though.

“By the end of 2009, 99,000 are going to have exhausted all their unemployment benefits, which is going to leave many workers in a tough position,” Isotalo said.

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nation’s unemployment rate did not change much in June.

Currently, there are 14.7 million unemployed persons, a rate of 9.5 percent.

Since the beginning of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed has almost doubled and the unemployment rate has risen 4.6 percent, BLR states.

According to the BLR in May 2009, Michigan had an unemployment rate of 13.9 percent, while Isabella County was at 8.6 percent in May 2009.

Bruce Weaver, economy analyst for the Michigan department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth, said the major reason for the high unemployment rate in Michigan is because of all the problems the auto industry has faced.

“There have been sharply reduced auto sales and with that centered in Michigan combined with the national recession and it has hurt demand,” he said.

Dennis Dunlap, associate superintendant of Career Technology Education for the Gratiot-Isabella RESD, said many problems Michigan is facing are specifically related to it’s lack of reaching out to other markets.

“Looking at Michigan as a state, we hadn’t diversified and look what happened to the auto industry,” he said.

Dunlap said though there are many problems the state is facing he keeps looking forward and thinks the state will not only get out of the recession but could be one of the leaders in pushing forward because the state has been dealing with a recession for longer than the nation has.

“I’m very optimistic, we’re going to pull through this,” he said.

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