Study: Michigan turnaround in late 2011

LANSING, Mich., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- University of Michigan economists said Michigan, with the highest unemployment rate in the nation, should see a slight resurgence in late 2011.

The unemployment rate in the Great Lakes state is currently 15.1 percent.

The study said in 2009 Michigan will lose 283,000 jobs, the Detroit Free Press reported. But job losses are forecast to taper off through the next two years, said George Fulton, one of the economists involved in study released Friday.

In the following year, Michigan is projected to lose 85,000 jobs. In 2011, 36,000 jobs would be lost before a turnaround began, the study said.

"In Michigan, prolonged difficulties have become a way of life. But the Michigan economy is in a more encouraging position now than it was at the beginning of 2009," Fulton said.

The unemployment rate in the state hit hard by an eight-year decline in the automobile industry would peak at 15.8 percent in 2010, the economists said.

The projections include a total loss of 937,000 jobs from 2000 to 2011, about 20 percent of the number of jobs before the downturn.