MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – Unemployment in the state of Michigan has seen a steady decline over the last year, including a lower rate decrease in the Upper Peninsula. A report from Michigan’s capital says unemployment rates are sitting at 4.2% and the Upper Peninsula is just shy of that at 4.1% as of October of this year (view this below).
UP Michigan Works CEO Debb Brunell notes the number of seasonal employment in the UP can end up skewing the rate. Another adjustment being made by companies that might see an impact on the unemployment is the ability to work from home. “It can very positive impact I think right now what’s important is work-life balance and working from home helps with that helps make people feel a little bit better and have that more positive balance in their life it doesn’ t always work for every job,” commented Brunell.
Although working from home is an incentive, Invest UP’s Marty Fittante noted that a great majority of the service jobs in the UP can’t support the adjustment. On top of that, keeping a younger generation of staff can be a difficult feat as well, especially in a more rural area.
There has been a growing interest in hybrid jobs and work-from-home lifestyle, but some of these industries in the UP require in-person.
“Well you look at two of the big drivers of our economy or maybe three actually when you look at healthcare, when you look at manufacturing and advanced manufacturing and you look at the service industry those are really tough to do from hybrid or with remote work,” commented Fittante.
“We need to think about new and innovative ways to like I said retain and attract,” continued Brunell.
Invest UP’s new rural leadership fellowship program is designed to make an impact on the UP’s labor force and one of the goals of this program, Invest UP said this focus is on retention.
“What the program is designed to do is to take masters level students or exceptional students at Northern and actually imbed them into economic development organizations or community organizations or municipalities to give them real-world experience allow them to get credit and then we actually pay them,” continued Fittante.
Click here to view the full State of Michigan unemployment rate report.
