LANSING – The unemployment rate in the state has dropped, but a larger proportion of those working are under-employed, the Corporation for Enterprise Development said in its 2016 Assets and Opportunity Scorecard. The group ranked Michigan 28 among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., down from 25 in 2015.
Among the key findings, some 12 percent of those working are under-employed, the group found. It also found 38.8 of households did not have enough savings to survive three months without any income. Nationally, 10.8 percent of workers are under-employed and 44 percent of households are “liquid asset poor”.
“Throughout the 20th Century, people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds came to Michigan to work and give their families the opportunity to live the American Dream. While this is still certainly still possible in Michigan today, as the Scorecard shows, not all Michigan families are realizing the same opportunities to succeed and achieve financial security. For the Great Lakes State to truly be great, Michigan must address this economic inequality,” Jamie Schriner-Hooper, executive director of the Community Economic Development Association of Michigan, the Michigan lead organization for CFED’s Assets & Opportunity Network, said in a statement announcing the report.
The report did have some points of praise for the state. Michigan, at 70.2 percent, had among the highest home ownership rates. It also has business ownership relatively evenly split between whites and minorities, with white business ownership only 1.02 times that of minorities.
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