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Archive for July, 2009

Michigan Unemployment Up to New Record 15.2%

Michigan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in June rose one and one-tenth percentage points to 15.2 percent, according to data released Wednesday by the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth.

The total number of unemployed in the state reached 740,000 in June, the highest monthly total in Michigan’s current official series dating back to 1976. June’s unemployment rate was highest for the state since May 1983.

Credit Card Delinquencies Hit Record High

Soaring U.S. unemployment and a shrinking economy drove delinquencies on credit card debt to an all-time high in the first quarter as a record number of cash-strapped consumers fell behind on their bills.

“The biggest driver is job losses,” ABA Chief Economist James Chessen said in an interview. “When people lose their jobs or work fewer hours, it makes it that much harder to meet their obligations. Unfortunately, we’re going to see higher job losses in the next year, and I expect elevated delinquencies.”

Borrowers are struggling as the nation’s jobless rate sits at a 26-year high of 9.5 percent, with 6.5 million jobs having disappeared since the recession began in December 2007. The Obama administration expects the unemployment rate to hit double digits before declining.

MI Will Lose Another 300K Jobs This Year

Michigan’s long series of job losses will cease in 2010, marking a 10-year slide that will have cost the state 950,000 jobs, or 20 percent of its work force, according to a mid-year forecast by a two influential University of Michigan economists.

But job losses remain fierce until then.

The state will lose about 311,000 jobs this year — the most in a single year since at least the 1950s. Non-manufacturing jobs, 71 percent of the state’s labor market, will account for more than half of the job losses this year, the report predicts.