Economists Report Job Growth
TROY (WWJ) - It's encouraging news on the economic front, Friday. WWJ and Fox 2 Business Editor Murray Feldman reports that for three months now, the jobless rate has fallen. In the past month, it fell because 192,000 people found jobs from coast to coast.
The nation's jobless rate is down 8.9 percent. That's a nearly two-year low.
WWJ Newsradio 950 spoke with Carl Camden, CEO of Kelly Service based in Troy, who said we saw expanding employment in a number of areas.
"Jobs were added across the board... Manufacturing added 30,000, great news for Michigan. (Business) services added almost 50,000; health care, 34,000; transportation, 22,000. There was almost no sector that didn't participate in the increase in employment," Camden said.
Camden said automotive hiring is in a growth mode, especially in IT and engineering. Although, he said to keep in mind that most of these people are those with experience who lost their jobs and ate being re-hired into the industry.
Camden said it looks like, this time, the trend will hold true in our state.
"I think Michigan's improving. We were late to the party but, thank goodness, we finally have joined in. I think we'll see a nice bump in Michigan employment when the state numbers come out," he said.
Feldman reports that one area that didn't see growth was the retail industry, which cuts jobs after the holiday sales rush. Also, state and local governments cut 30,000 jobs last month. That trend is expected to continue as governments work to balance the budget.
Read more about the national unemployment numbers at CBSNews.com.
