Jobs Boom Predicted in Oakland County: Report

TROY, MI — Researchers at the University of Michigan released a rosy forecast last week of job growth in Oakland County, projecting that the county will add thousands of white-collar jobs over the next three years and possibly face a labor shortage, according to a media report. The study, conducted by the university's Institute for Research on Labor, Employment and the Economy, predicts that Oakland will pick up more than 44,000 jobs through 2019, giving it more jobs than in 2009, the height of the Great Recession, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Most of the growth will be in high-wage positions such as engineers and lab technicians, which will pay $75,000 per year or more, said Don Grimes and Gabriel Ehrlich, the researchers who compiled the forecast.

They released the annual forecast last week at the Oakland County Economic Outlook Luncheon, the Free Press reported. Grimes said he expects to see job growth across Michigan over the next few years, but the rate of growth will slow down.

The U-M study found that in 2016, job growth in Oakland averaged 2.4 percent, exceeding the national average of 1.4 percent and Michigan's average of 1.6 percent, the Free Press reported. The county is projected to add 15,000 jobs in 2017, 14,000 in 2018 and 15,300 in 2019, according to the study.

"Oakland County's economy appears to have reached a comfortable cruising altitude after a turbulent start to the millennium," Ehrlich told the Free Press.

Another University of Michigan study also predicts that employment will grow in the Detroit region. The April report, conducted for the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), forecasts strong job growth through 2018 in the seven-county region, but projects that growth will then go flat through 2030, the Free Press reported.

Employment in automobile manufacturing is expected to remain flat, as productivity gains from automation mean that Detroit's carmakers will need fewer workers, the researchers said.

Jobs in the retail sector will decline in coming years as online shopping continues to eat away at sales once handled by "brick-and-mortar" stores, the SEMCOG study found.

But Grimes said that Oakland County's aging population will create more demand for medical services, and more jobs in the medical field, as well in the hospitality and leisure sectors.

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