Unemployment rate in Isabella County rose over during summer
Those looking for jobs in Mount Pleasant this summer had it easier than last year.
In July, Isabella County reported an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent, down from 11.5 percent unemployment reported in July 2011.
Ingham County, home to Michigan State University, reported a 9.2 percent unemployment rate, while Kalamazoo County, home to Western Michigan University, reported 8 percent.
Rick Waclawek, director of the Bureau of Labor Market Information & Strategic Initiatives, said in a news release that “workforce and employment levels in most Michigan regions expanded in June as summer and seasonal hiring continued.”
Additionally, the unemployment rates were pushed upward in July due to employment losses when companies made seasonal short-term job cuts within local education, temporary help and manufacturing, he said.
But Lawrence Brunners, associate professor of economics at CMU, is skeptical of these numbers.
“We have a university and a casino, which help,” he said. “Certainly the university has not cut jobs drastically like some manufacturing or construction firms.”
While he thinks Michigan’s rate is a reasonable measure, this is the worst recovery ever, since the recession ended in June 2009.
"We need a national administration that doesn’t try to regulate the private sector out of existence," he said.
“(For example) when Obama mandates an expensive health care law, forcing businesses’ costs up, that will hurt employment,” Brunner said. “When business after business says they can’t hire, because they have no certainty of what is going to happen in the future, that is a problem.”
Brunner said the unemployment rate is low in states like North Dakota — it reported 2.9 percent in July — because they are creating loads of jobs by drilling for oil and natural gas on private land.
The Obama administration is preventing such actions on public land, and Brunner said the controversial Keystone Pipeline is another way of killing jobs.
Michigan reported a 10.3 percent unemployment rate in July, an increase from 9.2 percent in June. Approximately 488,200 people are considered jobless in a labor force of 4.75 million.
Comparatively, the state is down from 11.5 percent unemployment in July 2011.
