Michigan Unemployment: Remembering The Least of These This Christmas Season

Michigan's unemployment rate improved for the second straight month, according to figures released Wednesday --- this could be an indicator that some sort of stabilization is coming to the state's troubled economy. State officials said the jobless rate dropped to 14.7 percent in November from a national high of 15.1 percent in October. It had reached 15.3 percent in September, the highest rate since early 1983.

This official rendering of the state's unemployment woes does not give us the complete picture, however, and all estimates point to Michigan maintaining its number one spot on the nation's most unemployed list. The actual unemployment rate, when you factor in those who have given up looking for work; or who have gone back to school following fruitless searching for work, could be as high as 45 percent.

Similarly, official joblessness stats don't include early-retirees - those who want or need to continue to work but have fallen victim to corporate downsizing - or those who work part-time but would really prefer full-time work.

In a piece, in the Detroit News (December 16, 2009), Mike Wilkinson states: "Despite an official unemployment rate of 27 percent, the real jobs problem in Detroit may be affecting half of the working-age population, thousands of whom either can't find a job or are working fewer hours than they want.

Using a broader definition of unemployment, as much as 45 percent of the labor force has been affected by the downturn.

And that doesn't include those who gave up the job search more than a year ago, a number that could exceed 100,000 potential workers alone."

Couple that picture with the reality that more Americans are depending on food stamps and food banks (especially senior citizens). New government statistics show the number of seniors living alone who seek help from food pantries in the U.S. increased by 81 percent between 2006 and 2008. And the demand continues to increase. Catholic Charities USA reported a 54 percent increase in requests for food and services from seniors nationwide during the third quarter compared to the same period last year.

What is merry about Christmas when you are faced with such harsh actualities? What is happy about the holidays when you are not just grappling with the abandonment of all the holiday extras, but many of the everyday necessities as well?

One silver-lining in all of this, for Michigan, is that unemployed workers can still contact the agency's automated MARVIN (Michigan's Automated Response Voice Interactive Network) system to claim their eligibility for unemployment benefits throughout the holiday season --- the official estimate of those claiming unemployment insurance in Michigan is approximately 470,000.

Let us this Christmas season, remember our suffering brothers and sisters in Michigan and everywhere across this nation and indeed around the world. Let us also think about our role and being the hands and feet of God's love. May relief come speedily, mightily and beautifully.

(Michigan.gov/uia)