The city’s unemployment rate has dropped again, now to its lowest level since April 2020, according to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Mayor Mike Duggan announced today. Numbers released today show Detroit’s unemployment rate for March was 5.8%, the lowest in 23 years.
In January, BLS reported the city’s rate had fallen to 6.4% in November 2022. The numbers show sustained progress on Detroit’s unemployment front from the height of the COVID pandemic in May of 2020, when the City’s unemployment rate spiked to more than 38%.
Mayor Mike Duggan said the numbers are encouraging but noted that the city is not yet where he thinks it can be or where he wants it to be.
“The sustained drop in our unemployment rate reflects the rise in opportunities in Detroit and that Detroiters are taking advantage of them,” the mayor said. “A 5.8% unemployment rate is great progress, but our goal is to have Detroit’s unemployment rate in line with the state and national averages.”
The mayor also added that Detroit at Work has 7,768 jobs and dozens of training programs available today.
Detroit’s trend of a continued strengthening economy is based largely on its ongoing success attracting good paying jobs to Detroit. In July, construction will begin on the first piece of the $1.5 billion 10-building District Detroit development, which will create nearly 12,000 new construction jobs and 6,000 permanent jobs.
Amazon has begun hiring the first of its 1,200 employees for its four million square foot distribution center at the state fairgrounds and a new 400-job employment center at the site of the former AMC headquarters will break ground this year. Lear’s new seating facility on the site of the former Cadillac Stamping Plant is also expected to reach full employment of at least 400 in 2023.
Nicole Sherard-Freeman, the mayor’s Group Executive for Jobs, Economy and Detroit at Work, said the city’s unemployment numbers continue to improve in large part because of broad spectrum of training and other supportive services that are helping Detroiters be prepared for the 8,400 opportunities currently available. The city’s workforce development program, Detroit at Work, helps create career opportunities for Detroiters at all levels of education, experience, and skills, and to give employers access to a highly qualified talent pipeline.
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