Executive Summary
In 2024, the size of Michigan’s labor force and number of payroll jobs grew to their highest levels in over 20 years. Wages recorded real improvements, as average hourly earnings outpaced inflation last year. These positive gains were dampened by a sharp rise in unemployment, which increased at a much faster pace than the nation, pushing Michigan’s unemployment rate to one of the highest in the country.
Unemployment
- After three years of declines, Michigan’s annual average unemployment rate rose to 4.7 percent in 2024. This was due to a substantial rise in the number of unemployed people.
- Michigan’s jobless rate remained consistently higher than the national unemployment rate for the twenty-year period from 2004 to 2024.
Michigan’s labor force topped 5 million in 2024, the highest level since 2001.
- Michigan’s labor force participation rate rose to 61.8 percent in 2024, similar to its pre-pandemic rate of 61.9 in 2019. The U.S. participation rate remained below pre-pandemic levels.
Workforce Demographics
- In 2024, the labor force participation rate for Black workers in Michigan surpassed the white participation rate for the first time in at least 20 years.
- Michigan unemployment rates for males (5.4 percent) increased much faster than for females (3.7 percent) in 2024, creating a larger-than-usual gap.
- The unemployment rate gap in Michigan between white workers (4.0 percent) and Black workers (7.6 percent) widened in 2024, after having a historically narrow gap of only 2.4 percentage points in 2023.
Payroll Jobs
- In 2024, Michigan had the most payroll jobs in over 20 years. However, despite four consecutive years of employment growth in the state, Michigan’s average growth rate is slowing down.
- Michigan’s 2024 annual average employment growth rate of 0.6 percent was seven-tenths of a percentage point below the national rate of 1.3 percent.
- Six of Michigan’s 11 major industry sectors grew in 2024. Private education and health services had the strongest gains, while the auto-related industries of Manufacturing and Professional and business services showed the greatest job losses over the year.
Wages
- Michigan’s 2024 minimum wage ranked 29th in the U.S. With the February 2025 increase to $12.48, the state’s ranking climbed to 18th.
- Michigan’s average hourly earnings increased more than inflation in 2024, giving workers the first meaningful increase in real wages since 2020.
- Approximately 622,000 jobs in Michigan paid $15 per hour or less in 2024, accounting for just over 14 percent of total state employment.
Job Demand
- Michigan job openings and online job advertisements both fell in 2024.
- While overall job ads in Michigan decreased, 23 of the top 50 advertised occupations recorded an increase in ads since December 2023.
- As the number of unemployed individuals in Michigan grew significantly throughout 2024, those available to work far outpaced the number of open positions.
