West Michigan has been less affected by COVID-19-related unemployment claims, compared to the manufacturing areas of Detroit, Macomb County and the I-69 corridor in the Thumb Region.
“We used to be primarily a manufacturing-based economy, but now we have intentionally diversified into the health sciences, technology and food-processing sectors,” Birgit Klohs, president and CEO of economic development organization The Right Place, Inc., told Bridge Michigan. “Our regional economy was built by family-owned businesses, and thousands still remain today. These businesses are heavily involved in the local community and are more likely to pursue layoffs only as a last resort.”
Bridge Michigan, which analyzed jobless rates of Michigan’s 83 counties, found that the West Michigan counties of Ingham, Kalamazoo, Kent and Ottawa each had an unemployment rate of under 20 percent.
On the other hand, the counties of Genesee, Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Shiawassee, St. Clair, Tuscola and Wayne all had unemployment rates of above 20 percent. Lapeer County, which is part of Metro Detroit and the I-69 Thumb Region, has the highest unemployment rate in the state at almost 33 percent.
“We are all experiencing the same labor forces working against us,” Lapeer Development Corporation Executive Director Quinten Bishop said. “The layoff trend … does not allow our people to get back to work.”
Michigan Economic Center Director John Austin said high unemployment claims among manufacturing regions is nothing new, as economic downturns in the past have seen the same outcome.
“Places with the old, classic Michigan monoculture are going to be hit hard,” Austin said. “They are the hardest hit, and they’re probably going to be the hardest to come back in the long term."
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