Labor Market
Unemployment rates fell from August to September in all 18 of Michigan’s labor market areas, the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget said Thursday, Oct. 22. But the monthly declines were largely seasonal, and the year-over-year comparison shows the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn metro area moving in the other direction.
All figures in the release are not seasonally adjusted, which is why the agency cautions that they may differ from Michigan’s seasonally adjusted statewide data. On that unadjusted basis, Michigan’s statewide rate was 4.8% in September, down from 5.2% in August but up from 4.6% a year earlier.
A seasonal monthly drop
Regional rates ranged from 3.4% in the Traverse City metro area to 5.6% in Detroit-Warren-Dearborn. The median region saw its rate fall 0.6 percentage point over the month. Northeast Lower Michigan had the biggest monthly decline, 0.8 point, to 5.0%.
“Michigan labor markets showed expected unemployment rate declines during September,” said Wayne Rourke, labor market information director for the Michigan Center for Data and Analytics.
Detroit’s monthly drop was among the smallest, from 5.7% to 5.6%. Other metro rates included 3.7% in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, 3.9% in Lansing-East Lansing, 4.0% in Kalamazoo-Portage, and 5.1% in both Flint and Saginaw. The Upper Peninsula stood at 4.3%.
The year-over-year view
Compared with September 2025, 16 of the 18 areas had lower unemployment rates, with a median decline of 0.2 point. The Muskegon-Norton Shore metro area had the largest improvement, down 0.7 point to 4.6%. Rates rose in two areas: Midland, up 0.1 point to 4.3%, and Detroit, up 0.7 point from 4.9%.
The Detroit figures show why. The metro area had about 123,000 unemployed residents in September, up 18,000, or 17.1%, from a year earlier, while the number of employed residents dipped by 5,000 to about 2.05 million. Detroit and Lansing were the only areas where household employment rose over the month.
The release also reports unusually large over-the-year declines in labor force and household employment elsewhere: employment fell in all 18 areas over the year, by a median 8.5%, with the largest drop, 10.0%, in the Lansing metro area. Statewide, the unadjusted labor force was 4.79 million, down 238,000 from a year earlier. The release does not explain the size of those declines, and they should be read with caution until the data are revised or explained.
Payrolls edged up on school hiring
A separate survey of employers showed Michigan’s unadjusted payroll jobs rose by 2,000 in September. Government added 42,000 jobs over the month, mainly from hiring at local schools and universities for the fall semester, according to the release. “Regional payroll job gains reflected seasonal hiring as schools resumed for the fall semester,” he said.
Payroll jobs rose in seven metro areas over the month, with a median gain of 0.7%, led by Lansing at 2.6%. They fell in seven areas and were unchanged in Niles. Over the year, statewide nonfarm employment was up just 1,000 jobs; nine metro areas gained jobs, five lost them, and Bay City was unchanged.
At the county level, 78 Michigan counties had lower unemployment rates than in August, and 64 had lower rates than a year earlier.
Caveats
Monthly swings in unadjusted data largely reflect the calendar, including the end of summer jobs and the return of school staff, rather than a change in labor demand. The regional numbers are also distinct from the seasonally adjusted state figures the Bureau of Labor Statistics published Tuesday, Oct. 20, which put Michigan’s September rate at 5.0%, significantly above the national average.
Sources
- Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget, “Michigan regional jobless rates fall during September,” October 22, 2026. https://www.michigan.gov/mcda/labor-market-information/employment-situation-press-releases/2026/10/22/michigan-regional-jobless-rates-fall-during-september
Featured photo: Downtown Lansing, Michigan, looking west from the Lansing Center along Michigan Avenue, with the State Capitol dome in the distance, photographed Aug. 8, 2012. Representative image. Photo: Davidshane0, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Cropped from the original.
