13.1% jobless rate holds in Michigan; payroll workers drop

9/16/2010

DETROIT - Michigan's unemployment rate held steady at 13.1 percent in August from July even as payroll jobs fell by 50,000 and the number of overall jobless declined, according to figures released Wednesday.

Michigan lost about 20,000 manufacturing jobs and 11,000 professional and business services jobs last month, state officials said. Government jobs fell by 11,000.

The number of unemployed fell about 3,000 to 634,000. The state's August unemployment rate was flat as the size of Michigan's labor force was down by 15,000 from July and total employment fell 13,000.

August's seasonally adjusted jobless rate released by the state Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth was down from 14.3 percent during August, 2009. Compared with that, the number of unemployed was down 64,000, or 9.2 percent.

"Michigan's jobless rate in 2010 fell from January through June, and has been flat over the last three months," Rick

Waclawek of the state labor agency's Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives, said.

Michigan's August jobless rate was still above the national level of 9.6 percent. Ohio's August jobless rate will be released Friday.