It looked like the end of the millennium would also be the end of Michigan manufacturing. The state lost 47 percent of its manufacturing employment, nearly 423,000 jobs, between 2000 and 2010 as the U.S. auto industry went into a frightening decline. But like a patient who surprisingly wakes up from a years-long coma, manufacturing […]
Business Watch
Covering the intersection of business and policy, and informing Michigan employers and workers on the long road back from coronavirus. Our Michigan Economic Dashboard shows key metrics that show how the state is performing.
Posted inBusiness Watch
Marquette ski builder dodges cost moguls
David Ollila, a serial entrepreneur who has started seven companies, took on a tough personal challenge in launching one new business in 2009. Ollila, 42 and of Marquette, came up with an idea for a ski-snowboard hybrid that he hoped could be built profitably in Michigan — not in China, which he’d relied on for manufacturing […]
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Perks are the point in 'amenity-driven' growth
When Dawn Barry and her husband, Mark, decided to sell their townhouse and buy a house eight years ago, they had a few criteria common to couples in their early 30s. It had to be affordable on their teacher salaries, located in a safe neighborhood with good schools for the children they planned to have […]
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Sorry, governor, Mich. still losing families
During his 2012 State of the State speech last week, Gov. Rick Snyder included, among his “Dashboard Updates,” a special mention of the newly released Atlas Van Lines moving index. The stated reason for the mention was that Atlas’ index showed that, in 2011, Michigan stopped a six-year trend of more people moving out of […]
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Snyder shows farmers the love
Did anyone else notice the little linguistic trick Gov.Rick Snyder played in his State of the State Wednesday night? At one point, he started talking about unsung heroes of the economy and mentioned agricultural. He then said, “We are the second … I was sure he was forming a an all-too-familiar paean to the “second-largest […]
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Truth Squad tackles 'State of State' speech
In Michigan in 2012, there’s really only one issue on the radar: jobs. How does the state get more of them? How do residents fill them? How much do they pay? In the hours leading up to Gov. Rick Snyder’s second State of the State Address, some notable numbers came in: Michigan’s unemployment rate in […]
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Michigan job forecast bright – for 2030
The Michigan economy is recovering. For those of you with weak hearts, let’s leave it at that. Spend a few minutes watching a kitten stuck in a hamster ball. For those of you still here: the economy is recovering slowly. Just how slowly? I could show you a chart, but this will give you a […]
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Trading business pinstripes for another kind
First things first: The photo making the rounds of social media, the one with Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel “Matty” Moroun sitting gape-mouthed, eyes upturned, as though someone has just gut-punched him, is not the moment Wayne County Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards dropped the bomb. Video clearly shows that when Edwards told Moroun that he and […]
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Time to try Bernero's bank idea?
Banks being stingy with small business loans are choking off America’s economic recovery, argues blogger Matt Yglesias at his new home at slate.com. He is reporting on new research that purports to show that small businesses that just want to do business and need some bank money for investment have been hurt disproportionately during the […]
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U-M research gives split image of Michigan Works
Noticing Bridge’s recent coverage of the effectiveness of Michigan Works agencies around the state, Tom Ivacko of the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy at the University ofMichigan directed our attention to two pieces of research at U-M. One casts the MW agencies in a good light; the other is not quite as favorable. […]