Jobless rate in Michigan falls to 10.4%

in February

3/24/2011

LANSING -- Michigan's jobless rate continues to drop after being among the nation's leaders for more than a year.

The state said Wednesday that February's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 10.4 percent. That's a decrease of three-tenths of a percentage point and is well below the February, 2010, rate of 13.5 percent.

The Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth said total employment increased by 11,000 jobs.

The nation's unemployment rate for February was 8.9 percent.

Michigan's jobless rate has declined steadily since reaching 14.1 percent in September, 2009. The number last month of unemployed fell below 500,000 for the first time since November, 2008.

The state said job levels have increased since mid-2009 while the numbers of unemployed have fallen. There also are fewer workers active in the state's labor force.