It has happened, Michigan has broken the tie and taken over the lead. We have now passed Rhode Island to be the state with the highest unemployment rate in the nation.
At 9.6% this is the highest it's been since 1992.
Our dependence on the auto industry has been a problem for many years now but nothing serious has been done to solve this problem. We are still not the business friendly state we need to be to attract business at a rate that will get us out of this.
Our state legislators are term limited which means that once they get the hang of it they are out and new rookies take their place. This seemed like a good idea at the time but I think we need to rethink this concept, or at least amend it to allow them a longer time in office than the two terms they now get.
Until Michigan is a more attractive destination for business we are going to have problems. The bailout of the auto companies is not going to help us. GM, Ford and Chrysler are going to be smaller companies with fewer employees in the future. We need to diversify our job base, and that means revamping the tax system here to attract new business.
Until then we are in for tough times.
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