The reported insured unemployment rate on October 3rd dropped from 9% to 7%. About 87,000 fewer people are receiving state unemployment insurance in Michigan. According to the U.S. Department of labor it is one of the largest drops since mid-summer. We have gone from around 388,000 people (about half the population of Delaware) to 301,000 of people receiving state unemployment. That would be the lowest number since March 21st.

“Fast forward to today and it is likely that many unemployed Michiganders are transitioning off of Michigan unemployment insurance and into federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment (Compensation) insurance programs," said Nick Juhle, director of investment research at Greenleaf Trust, a Kalamazoo wealth management firm.

Michigan’s Unemployment lasts for 26 weeks (about 6 months), if you look back that far it was the beginning of April, when the pandemic was really kicking in.

Numbers show much of the difference is due to that transition. Michigan residents reported being on federal pandemic PEUC insurance increased from 62,000 on September 19th, to 132,000 on October 3rd. Residents will get paid from PEUC for 13 weeks (about 3 months), after that if they are still eligible, they can apply for another 20 weeks, for a total of 59 weeks.

Unemployed Michigan residents also received help from Donald Trump’s executive order, $300 for six weeks, which was available August 1 through September 5th. The week ending October 10th shows a 2,600 person fall in new claims for that week. That was the largest decrease in the U.S., some other states saw increases in new claims of more than 10,000 compared to the prior week. Residents filed 15,000 new jobless claims in Michigan for the week ending October 3rd. Michigans job market is coming back quicker than many other states, but it still has a long way to go.

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