File this under depressing chart of the day:
About 1 in 3 of the officially jobless have now been without work for more than a year. For the context: The previous high for that figure in the last half-century was about 14 percent.
With Michiganrunning a jobless rate above 11 percent — and with the state’s job creation rate projected to be less than robust — the prospect is rising that the state will have 100,000, 200,000 even 300,000 people of working age who will be out of the regular work force for years.
The number of official jobless in Michigan is just over 500,000 right now. If you assume 1/3 of them have been out of work for 52 weeks or more, that gets you to 167,000. As the economy continues to sputter, it’s unlikely that the figure is going to go down.
The governor is due to present a message on talent and the work force this month. How will it address the long-term unemployed, or will it?
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