[Pen-l] Tough times across U.S. have Michiganders stuck in state

[Charles Brown <cdb1003@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tough times across U.S. have Michiganders stuck in state

Many willing to move, but few jobs to be found

BY KATHERINE YUNG
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER 
During tough times in the early 1980s, droves of Michiganders fled the
 state to take jobs in the booming Texas oil patch. Survival depended 
on going where the jobs were. When the economy rebounded, 
many people moved back.
Today, with the recession nearing a depth of misery last seen during 
those long-ago days, many Michiganders are confronting an 
unpleasant reality: Leaving isn't an option.
The sagging job market in other states has made it much
 more difficult for Michigan residents to find work elsewhere. But 
staying put means living in a state with an 11.6% unemployment rate, the nation's highest.
It's no wonder that many Michiganders feel trapped.
Just ask Paul Schumacher, a 55-year-old residential
 builder and renovation specialist in Harper Woods.
Since his business dramatically slowed last fall, he has 
been willing to go anywhere in the country for work. But the 
housing slump that hit Michigan has spread to other states, making new job opportunities scarce.
One building company in California told Schumacher that 
things are just as bad in the Golden State, which has seen
 its unemployment rate soar to 10.1%.
"There are no positions in Michigan and most other states," 
Schumacher said.
If the lack of job mobility continues, it could have a big
 impact -- affecting everything from the size of Michigan's
 population to residents' demand for social services, experts say.
The situation could help reduce, at least temporarily, the
 decline in the state's population, which now hovers at 10 million.
From 2007 to 2008, Michigan was one of only two states to 
lose people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
 Its population has been falling the last three years, with 
nearly 110,000 residents departing from July 2007 to July 2008.
Among the exodus: young, educated people like Sarah Katz 
leaving for jobs in Chicago, New York and other cities.
In 2007, the latest year for which data is available, a net total 
of 17,000 of these kinds of talented individuals moved out, 
state figures show.
Katz, 23, graduated from Michigan State University last
 May with an advertising and public relations degree. Though 
she applied for jobs in and outside of Michigan, the only interviews 
she got were in other states. The Kalamazoo resident wound up 
transforming an internship at a small advertising agency in 
Chicago into a full-time job.
This kind of brain drain, however, is likely to slow this year 
because jobs are harder to come by in popular states such 
as Illinois, California, Texas and Florida, experts say.
"It does keep people stranded in Michigan who might have 
gone somewhere else," said William Frey, a demographer at 
the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and a 
University of Michigan professor.
Two of the nation's biggest moving companies already 
have noticed a decline in the number of Michiganders leaving the state.
Atlas Van Lines moved 12% fewer people out of Michigan 
last year than it did in 2007 -- something it hasn't seen 
since the last recession at the start of the decade. United 
Van Lines experienced a 6% drop.
Due to the worsening job market in the rest of the country, 
Kenneth Darga, the state's demographer, said he expects Michigan's 
net migration rate, now the worst in the nation at -9.2%, to show
 some improvement in the short term.
But Michigan isn't unique, he said. Around the country, more
 people are staying put.
Yet growing numbers of unemployed people stuck in Michigan 
also could hurt the state, increasing crime and boosting the 
need for food aid and other types of social assistance.
State agencies and nonprofit organizations that help poor people
 already are stretched thin, said Sharon Parks, chief executive officer of the Michigan League for Human Services.
"People are kind of hanging on by their fingernails trying to keep 
their heat and lights on," she said of the desperate straits 
facing the state's unemployed people.
Schumacher hasn't reached this point yet. But if he doesn't
 find work soon, he said he could lose his truck and his home. 
So far, the Michigander has been getting by on his credit cards.
But he doesn't have to look far to see that in today's economy, 
a job outside Michigan no longer provides more security than 
a position in the state.
Last April, one of his sisters, Carole Burton, quit her job and 
moved from West Bloomfield to the Phoenix area, looking for 
warmer weather and a different lifestyle.
Three weeks after she arrived, the native Michigander landed 
a job as a controller at a general contractor. Six months later, the company l
aid her off when the national economy tanked.
Burton, 50, said she doesn't regret leaving Michigan 
because she enjoys the climate, social scene and sports
 activities in Scottsdale. She had been working a temporary 
job at a nonprofit agency but now is unemployed. Her son moved
 in with her and helps pay the rent.
"I didn't anticipate I could lose my job," Burton said. "It's extremely 
humbling and humiliating in some ways. But I didn't like Michigan at all."
Contact KATHERINE YUNG at kyung@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Facts 

Other states are struggling, too 
In the nation's worst economic downturn since the Great 
Depression, the grass isn't much greener on the other side 
of the Michigan border. Here's a look at some places that 
were destinations for Michiganders in the early 1980s, when 
conditions in the state were even worse than today.

Michigan

January 2009 unemployment rate: 11.6%

January 1982 unemployment rate: 14.7%

    * With Detroit's automakers struggling to survive, economists 
expect Michigan's unemployment rate -- already the highest 
in the nation -- to increase further. The national economic 
stimulus plan will help alleviate some of the pain but isn't likely to 
stop mounting job losses in the state. 

California

January 2009 unemployment rate: 10.1%

January 1982 unemployment rate: 8.8%

    * In December, the Golden State's unemployment rate hit
 a 15-year high. California, the largest state in the nation in 
terms of employment and population, is suffering from the housing 
slump, a more than $40-billion budget shortfall and a slowdown in exports.
 Even Silicon Valley's tech start-ups are feeling the pain. 

Florida

January 2009 unemployment rate: 8.6%

January 1982 unemployment rate: 7.7%

    * The Sunshine State is reeling from massive construction 
industry job losses. Its December unemployment rate was the 
highest since September 1992. Like Michigan, the only major 
industries showing job growth are education and health services. 

Texas

January 2009 unemployment rate: 6.4%

January 1982 unemployment rate: 5.6%

    * The Lone Star State has fared better than most, with an 
unemployment rate below the national average. But weakness 
in the energy markets and international trade is causing some 
hiccups. And unlike the early 1980s, the oil companies aren't 
on a hiring binge. 

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; RealtyTrac Inc.; Dana Johnson 
at Comerica Bank, and Free Press research.

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