Detroit's Unemployment Rate Is Nearly 50%, According to the Detroit News

Officially, Detroit's unemployment rate is just under 30 percent. But the city's mayor and local leaders are suggesting a far more disturbing figure -- the actual jobless rate, they say, is closer to 50 percent.

As many have noted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which culls federal unemployment data, does not account for all of the jobless in its widely-quoted national unemployment figures. Among those omitted: part-time workers who are looking for full-time jobs and frustrated job seekers who abandon their job search altogether.

(For some context, the official national unemployment rate is 10 percent, but the "underemployment rate" is 17.2 percent.)

Detroit city officials argue that, when workers who are underemployed are added to the calculation, the number of city residents who are out of work is close to one in every two.

The Detroit News reports:

"The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that for the year that ended in September, Michigan's official unemployment rate was 12.6 percent. Using the broadest definition of unemployment, the state unemployment rate was 20.9 percent, or 66 percent higher than the official rate. Since Detroit's official rate for October was 27 percent, that broader rate pushes the city's rate to as high as 44.8 percent."

The alarming numbers coming from Detroit officials are supported by another set of recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which stand in harsh contrast to the more positive national employment picture. The jobless rate in the Detroit MSA (metropolitan statistical area) increased 7.3 percentage points in just one year, the highest increase for any metro area in the nation.

Statewide, Michigan still leads the nation in official unemployment, with a rate of 15.1 percent. Homelessness, especially among those becoming homeless for the first time, is expected to jump at least 10 percent this year.

The employment situation, as The Detroit News suggests, is actually significantly worse for men in Detroit:

For a variety or reasons -- access to transportation, job availability and work skills -- an estimated 48.5 percent of male Detroiters ages 20 to 64 didn't have a job in 2008, according to census figures. For Michigan, it's 26.6 percent; for the United States, 21.7 percent.

The paper's calculations back up Mayor Dave Bing's assertion at last week's White House Jobs Summit that Detroit's unemployment rate was "probably close to 50 percent." Bing was in Washington to press the federal government to channel more money directly into city clean-up projects and infrastructure development. "We've got projects that are shovel-ready," he pleaded.

Get HuffPost Business On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[Sivels]

11:58 AM on 01/10/2010

Detroit: The poster-cit­y for liberal policies

[EdGauthier]

12:13 PM on 01/04/2010

States like Michigan always set themselves up for severe trouble in the near future because they never learn from Europe's old mistakes:

Never make a major city depend mainly on only one business, like a mine or a large company store. because if the store closes or the mine collapses, instead of a few people losing some jobs, everyone's screwed overnight .

And in the case of Detroit and their limited car plants, that's exactly what happened. Their "near future" decline is now. Hope making all those clunky cars and mini-vans was worth it, guys, while Japan kicked your sorry asses with their small economical cars.

And remember, you can't spell Detroit without RIOT!

[MyTurn2020]

05:31 PM on 12/20/2009

As a former Detroiter dating back to the years when Coleman Young was mayor, the city was starting to see a decline. The election of thug mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick and the ineffectiv­e city council members only added to the demise of this one-time midwest jewel. Detroiters are survivors but this one time, when I'd advocate leaving the island. The city has a extremely high poverty and crime rates dating back to the 1990's. There have been no industries implementi­ng career-dri­ven jobs in sufficient numbers to the residents. And honestly, unfortunat­ely...the rest of the country doesn't care about Detroit. There is no real lifeboat being sent to the city. A new mayor can only do so much. It will be decades before Detroit can rebound like other cities in the past. I'm thinking of Cleveland and even New Orleans. At least with New Orleans you have prominent people (e.g. Ellen DeGenerous­, Brad Pitt, etc.) who are clear cheerleade­rs. No one is doing that for Detroit. Just my opinion. I pray that things will change for the good very, very soon.

[invest in jobs]

09:55 AM on 12/20/2009

Goldman and Bank of America run the markets along with Geithner, and beagle boy Ben. There
are no free markets, only welfare capitalism and socialism for capitalism­.

hat tip to: http://fin­anceopinio­nss.blogsp­ot.com
Small biz need to apply. Too big to fail & too small to succeed is the govt. moto

[Tresco]

06:43 PM on 12/19/2009

I saw a news video where parents wanted to send the City's underperfo­rming teachers to jail. I guess they can't be fired. Or perhaps nobody wants to work there but real sadsacks. I wonder how the parents feel about jail for underperfo­rming parents or students. Underprefo­rming i.e. corrupt city officials also come to mind as do auto company excutives. If only 1 in 4 of High School students graduates I think some of the people are unemployed because they are unemployab­le.

[treat2day]

10:07 PM on 12/18/2009

Imagine if the democrats would have let GM and Chrysler close permanentl­y!

It would be worse in many other places for suppliers and neighborho­ods servicing working Americans.

[GenosseJoe]

02:52 PM on 12/19/2009

Suppliers would happily supply parts for Toyotas, Fords and Nissans.

And why are you sure, that an alternativ­e to Obama closing most of the GM would be a complete closing of all GM?

GM might go through the normal bankruptcy procedure, clean itself from outlandish union contracts and emerge stronger.

Instead we are having another AmTrack on the taxpayer's dime and factories are closing anyway.

[GenosseJoe]

08:24 PM on 12/18/2009

Isn't Obama the largest employer in Detroit now, after he had started to run GM?

[Wolves50]

07:19 PM on 12/18/2009

If only we could bring back Kwame Kipatrick to save the day.......­....hehe

[Pilatunes]

05:38 PM on 12/18/2009

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe the city really does need to be abandoned. Or at least a large part of it. Call it anti-urban sprawl. Ghost towns are a familiar phenomenon­...this is just the 21st century equivalent­.

One catch...wh­ere do the people go? Not sure that moving unemployed people to somewhere else so they can continue to be unemployed will acccomplis­h much.

It is a shame. I've seen some websites featuring then and now pics of Detroit. It must have been a grand city in its heyday. Great architectu­re.

[holyghostie]

04:55 PM on 12/18/2009

Start Busing the people from Detroit to the Mexican Border! Lets sneak a few thousand across and see if they get social services and free medical coverage.

[mkenn]

02:21 PM on 12/18/2009

It's time for a jobless revolt. http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=GLnbx8qB4­SU

[CaliGrown78]

12:29 PM on 12/18/2009

I moved to MI from CA & plan on moving back to CA over the next year. When I first arrived I lived with my grandparen­ts who live in a town called Eastpoint that's very near Detroit I moved out to a suburb called Sterling Heights because I refused to live in the city of Detroit. I remember when I first arrived thinking "what a sh!thole this place is!!!" There are propbably some of the most uneducated people I've ever ran into in my whole life. It's also one of the most dirtiest ran down places I've ever seen, even worse than E.Oakland & N.Richmond & lemme tell you thats saying a lot. You can tell that This used to be a beautiful & prosperous city but those days are long gone & with the colapse of the car empire Detroit is basically a wrap. I feel really bad because people here don't want it to be the way it is but the problems are so big & so big in numbers that people just don't know what to do & the city / state gov't are just as usless as they are everywhere else in the country so that doesn't help either. When people find out I moved here voluntaril­y they look at me like I have 9 heads

[Tresco]

10:03 AM on 12/18/2009

I would not allow a dog to live in these conditions­. Get the people out. Resettle them. Abandon the city. Level it like Pruit-Igoe­. Turn it into parkland. It is not 1900. People do not want to live in densely populated cities that cannot meet their basic needs.

[maniswil1]

03:51 PM on 12/18/2009

Yeah seriously look at the migration patterns in China, all those people moving back into the rural land to farm peanuts. *Sarcasm*

[Tresco]

04:41 PM on 12/18/2009

Detriot is not in China. In China the dynamic rural to urban shift is similar to the US in 1900. Whats going on in Detroit is a much different animal.

[sueinmn]

08:16 PM on 12/17/2009

With the present business models for cheaper labor, greed and the dis-taste for unions, this country has stepped back into time. Not a good place to be if business does not change its atitude. It may be time to boycot just about everything and run these businesses to the ground until the thought process changes! Then of course we have so many people who dont want anyone to make a living wage and prefer to see the entire country falter. Lack of education or just plain dumbed down society?

[maniswil1]

03:24 PM on 12/18/2009

Michigan has one of the highest rates of unionizati­on in the country:

http://www­.infopleas­e.com/ipa/­A0882960.h­tml

Cheaper labor is what drives production­. Have you ever owned a business then over-pay employees constantly to appease them without any sort of incentive based system? That wouldn't be a lasting business model, more then likely it would be mothballed immediatel­y. Unions have nothing to offer for a higher living standard unless you plan on spending your life there. Start a business or specialize in something, don't try to use a mob to control wages, you will always lose. Also what is the deal with pretending like everyone needs to be paid well yet some you constantly piss and moan about CEOs getting bonuses ? Were you crying when unions basically controlled the automobile sector including production of the suvs that are destroying the earth. (Ford, and GM basically had to bend over backwards to get rid of the workers to stay afloat)

[Josh Shahryar]

07:45 PM on 12/17/2009

Utterly sad.