The state of Michigan has another dubious distinction: It's tied with South Carolina as the hardest state in the country to find a job.
A new study from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit Washington, D.C., think tank, finds that it took 19.4 weeks in Michigan and South Carolina to find a job, the longest amount of time in the country. North Dakota was the shortest at 7.1 weeks.
That Michigan, a state that has led the nation for 48 consecutive months in the unemployment rate, would be high on the list for difficulty of finding a job is not surprising. Michigan's unemployment rate was 14.0 percent in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
South Carolina's unemployment rate was 11.6 percent, sixth-highest in the country.
"This is what you get when the political class substitutes ineffective political "jobs" and "incentives" programs for genuine reform in the state's tax, regulatory a labor law climates," said Jack McHugh, a senior legislative analyst with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, in an e-mail.
South Carolina's wait time is a bit more perplexing, since that state is a right-to-work state.
Ashley Landess, president of the South Carolina Policy Council think tank, said her state lost 90,000 jobs from August 2008 to August 2009.
"The most obvious reason for our failing economy is government spending," Landess wrote in an e-mail. "Small businesses make up the bulk of our jobs, yet we refuse to cut their taxes."
Tight security locked out dozens of anti-right-to-work protesters from the State Capitol as Governor Snyder was delivering his "State of the State" address. Protesters tried to disrupt the speech by banging and chanting outside the building.
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FROM MICHIGAN HOME HELP PROGRAM PROVIDERS — OFTEN FAMILY MEMBERS
ATTORNEY GENERAL ORDERED THE STATE TO STOP TAKING MONEY ON MAY 25, 2012
opinion May 25, 2012
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) "organized” Michigan's self-employed Home Help Program providers for the purpose of skimming dues from their ailing and disabled clients' Medicaid subsidy checks. The majority of these providers are relatives or friends taking care of loved ones. It’s been estimated that less than 25 percent of the providers are hired in an employment setting.
The first counter tallies SEIU dues skimmed since the union and state officials first launched this scheme in late 2006. The second shows the amount skimmed since June 9, 2011, when the Michigan House passed and sent to the Senate a bill to ban this and all similar “stealth unionization” efforts. The third counter shows the dues skimmed since the Governor signed the bill into law on April 10, 2012. The fourth counter shows the amount skimmed since May 25, 2012, when the Attorney General opinion was announced.
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