Detroit's Jobless Rate Solid At 25%; UM Says

DETROIT—Detroit's unemployment rate as of Monday sits at 25%, according to a University of Michigan news release.

Prior to the pandemic the rate was at 11%, and while the current rate is still more than twice that number, it has fallen dramatically from its peak at 48% during the height of the pandemic in July 2020. But the current 25% rate has remained steady since fall of 2020, the news release said.

The news release also noted that among those unemployed, 20% have recently been out of work five months or less, while 33% have been out of work for six to 11 months. And nearly half at 47% reported being out of work for more than a year.

Residents earning less than $30,000 a year are the hardest hit, constituting nearly half of the entire unemployment rate at 46%, while just 6% are out of work for workers earring at least $60,000 a year, the news released noted.

"Unemployment remains a significant problem among Detroit households, and like so many issues, it does not fall evenly across Detroiters," Elisabeth Gerber, a research lead for DMACS, said in the news release. "We see ongoing evidence of the pandemic as an economic crisis as well as a public health crisis."

Most unemployed Detroit residents blame the pandemic for being out of work with 49% saying their place of work has closed and 50% say they were laid off due to the pandemic, the news release said.

The university collected the data from UM's Detroit Metro Area Communities Study.