Eastern Wayne Today

According to federal employment data released earlier this month, over half of Michigan’s job opportunities are in four counties throughout the state: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Kent. Other counties seem to be having a hard time catching up.

Since the great recession in 2008, Michigan’s greatest job growth has occurred in the greater Detroit area and the Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo corridor. 

“It’s pretty easy . . . they’re the biggest counties,” Sen. Peter Lucido (R-Shelby Township) told Eastern Wayne Today. “We have 83 counties in Michigan – Wayne County is the largest, Oakland County is the second, Macomb is the third, and Kent is the fourth. It kind of makes sense.” 

Michigan state Sen. Peter Lucido (R-Shelby Township)

Sen. Lucido further explains that job opportunity and growth makes sense in the biggest counties of a state. 

While these few areas are striving, other counties have been struggling for over a decade. Counties including Bay, Van Buren and Shiawassee have not seen much growth from 2009 to 2018. Many of these areas have seen fewer jobs available, according to an MLive analysis. Sen. Lucido says that these other counties have to make job growth a priority. 

“Number one, it’s got to be an economic driver,” he said. “What is it that they are doing in their communities that would attract a certain industry to open up and start to make jobs . . . they have to be job creators. The townships, cities and villages, or the counties, have to be job creators.”

Sen. Lucido explains that cities can do this by offering tax incentives to companies, or temporary wavering of property taxes, which will create an environment and market for jobs that have potential in Michigan. 

“Create the market for business,” he said.

The biggest industry moving into Michigan over the past decade has been manufacturing. Financial industries have also had their eye on the state. 

“We've got a lot of manufacturing that is coming into this state and they’re doing it because we are – here in Michigan – pretty friendly about treating businesses more so with less restrictive government, less red tape and opportunity to grow with the state that is bringing the wind behind the sail so they can move forward smoothly and easily.”