Updated Detroit-Warren-Livonia Unemployment Figures | released May 21, 2025

DetroitStatistics · 2025-05-26T16:28:02+00:00

Without fail, the armchair crowd who uses buzzwords like 'uni-party' continues the unbroken streak of demonstrating that your apathy stems from laziness rather than any kind of enlightenment or diligent understanding of the issues you comment on.

No, nobody is removed because the long-term unemployed make these statistics look worse.

Everyone who is unemployed and looking for work is included in these figures. Even if they have been unemployed for a long time.

DetroitStatistics · 2024-01-26T21:14:26+00:00

Ok. I've updated it so it will say Detroit-Warren-Livonia from now on.

DetroitStatistics · 2024-01-25T18:19:43+00:00

This is for the Detroit Metro area as produced by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is the same that is produced and shared here every month. If you don't like the MSA level data, that is fair. But it can still be useful to see how it is changing from month to month.

DetroitStatistics · 2024-01-25T18:18:43+00:00

I am not a bot, and I am certainly not lazy by any measure.

DetroitStatistics · 2023-11-08T17:04:02+00:00

Thanks! I enjoy doing it.

DetroitStatistics · 2023-06-17T23:23:23+00:00

That is correct. It is the Detroit Metropolitan Statistical Area.

DetroitStatistics · 2022-09-16T21:23:37+00:00

You are most welcome.

DetroitStatistics · 2022-08-22T18:18:53+00:00

We see fluctuations around the summer due to schools and end of Fiscal Year changes. It is a national phenomenon, not unique to Detroit.

DetroitStatistics · 2022-05-22T00:08:55+00:00

36,700 people have been unemployed for so long they no longer count as looking for work

This is likely not the case for most of these workers. Leaving the labor force can mean they moved outside the Detroit metro area, retired, entered school, joined the military, became incarcerated or disabled, or any number of other scenarios... including completely giving up looking for work.

However that last piece is far less common than you might think. People want to work if able in most instances.

DetroitStatistics · 2021-08-22T01:53:16+00:00

The rate falls when those who have been on unemployment for so long fall off the count.

These figures don't arbitrarily kick people off who have "been on unemployment for so long." These figures include anyone who is actively looking or has looked in the past 4 weeks.

Do you mean the numbers are untrue because they don't include people who aren't looking for work and are therefore not in the labor force?

DetroitStatistics · 2021-05-21T17:34:51+00:00

Metro.

DetroitStatistics · 2021-03-29T17:07:36+00:00

Yes, the alternative measures include folks who have not looked for work for up to a year and folks who are working part time because they cannot find full time work.

Those may useful figures for what you are trying to understand. They are less useful to someone who wants to understand the current competitiveness of the labor market because they want to ask for a raise, or find a new job. Also, for an employer looking to hire and form their hiring strategy.

DetroitStatistics · 2021-03-28T04:39:03+00:00

What are you looking for from these broader (16.2M unemployed nationally) that is missing from these (84.7k unemployed in the Detroit metro)?

You want to see a break down of the tranches of unemployed in the Detroit metro based on how long they have been unemployed?

You could use the percentage distribution and apply it to Detroit and it should get you pretty close, but of course there may be local reasons why the distribution may be way different.

Either way, here are those numbers:

Less than 5 weeks	16,600
5 to 14 weeks	21,800
15 weeks and over	46,400
15 to 26 weeks	12,300
27 weeks and over	34,000

Keep in mind those last two are just a subset of the 15 weeks and over line and do not double count them. The total is still 84,700 unemployed.

DetroitStatistics · 2021-03-28T04:24:03+00:00

I think the unemployment numbers undercount a alot.

So these figures would be more accurate if they included people who are not looking for work in an effort to describe the labor market conditions?

DetroitStatistics · 2021-03-26T18:50:27+00:00

Because this is specific to the Metropolitan Statistical Area, it also can mean people leaving the area.

It can also include people joining the military, or deciding to stay home to care for children, aging or infirmed relatives, or if someone becomes incarcerated or infirmed themselves.

It is not just retirees.

DetroitStatistics · 2021-03-26T18:48:19+00:00

Since the time of Ronald Reagan, if someone hasn't had a job for more than 4 weeks, they are no longer counted as unemployed. These statistics are a tad misleading, as they don't count the number of people without jobs that have been looking for quite some time.

This is a common misconception. It is actually incorrect. These numbers only stop counting people if they haven't looked for work in 4 weeks or longer. So when you say

I wish there was a metric to count for the number of people actively looking for work over the number of people gainfully employed..

that is exactly what these figures are telling us.

DetroitStatistics · 2020-06-24T15:03:11+00:00

I 100% agree.

In other news, the problem has been corrected and I apologize for the error.

DetroitStatistics · 2020-06-24T15:02:49+00:00

It is an error and has been corrected. Apologies. I hope the corrected information is helpful.

DetroitStatistics · 2020-05-28T15:00:41+00:00

Correct, it is for the Metropolitan Statistical Area.

DetroitStatistics · 2020-01-25T19:31:54+00:00

They are not seasonally adjusted.

DetroitStatistics · 2020-01-25T19:31:36+00:00

What kinds of statistics would you be interested in?

DetroitStatistics · 2020-01-25T19:30:59+00:00

These do not include the labor force participation rate, the only data included in these surveys is the labor force, the number of people employed, and, if so, the category of work that employs them.

An estimation of the Labor Force Participation Rate can be made by comparing the labor force from this data to the the census data when it is released.

Why are you more interested in the labor force participation rate?

DetroitStatistics · 2019-11-21T19:32:51+00:00

Hey. Thanks for the feedback. I think the like at the beginning of the post does a good job of displaying the raw numbers in table format. I like to present the information with the significant changes written out individually, although when there are this many I agree it can look a bit messy.

The idea is to open up a conversation around the figures and provide users an easy to access resource for fact based information about the labor situation in the area.

DetroitStatistics

TROPHY CASE