In Detroit, 100,000 People Still Unemployed

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 2:16PM EST · Published Mar 4, 8:30AM EST

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In Detroit, 100,000 People Still Unemployed — © Thinkstock

[cnxvideo id=”507734″ placement=”ros”]The turnaround of the fortunes of Detroit has failed to benefit 99,229 people, which is the number of them out of work in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The situation is rarely, if ever, mentioned in the stories about the Motor City’s resurrection.

The civilian labor force in the Detroit metropolitan area was 2,069,104 in December, so the employment situation has improved sharply since the recession. However, the raw number of nearly 100,000 unemployed people only tells part of what is a grim story about the lingering problems in the city. A total of 39.3% of people in the city live below the poverty line.

Comments made recently by the Detroit Chamber of Commerce are a common way boosters have supported large improvements in the city’s fortunes:

Since 2006, approximately $12 billion has been invested in commercial, industrial and residential properties in the city of Detroit. Corporations, such as Quicken Loans and Blue Cross Blue Shield, have added nearly 12,000 jobs in downtown Detroit over the past few years. With entrepreneurs and young professionals capitalizing on low real estate prices and growing career opportunities; the city is on the rise.

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When measured against the city’s employment situation “12,000 jobs over the past few years” means nothing, particularly when the period is so vague.

Among the other comments from the Detroit Chamber of Commerce:

Condo, loft and apartment housing in the Downtown and Midtown areas are essentially sold-out – reflecting the growing popularity of Detroit as a destination residential locale. 97% of downtown Detroit’s and 95% of Midtown’s rental apartments are occupied. Young professionals with bachelor’s degrees living downtown have increased by 59 percent since 2000.

It may be that the supply of apartments to attract these people is low, which would make the numbers of questionable value.

The turnaround in Detroit is often described in terms that are subjective. And the 100,000 unemployed people are kept out of the picture.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.