Nevertheless, the county’s other economic indicators suggest light at the end of job-loss tunnel. Here are the highlights:
- Between March 2012 and March 2013, Wayne County showed a net loss of more than 60 nonfarm jobs—down 3.8 percent.
- Most major sectors showed job loss. Leisure/hospitality services, manufacturing, the federal government, and mining were among the biggest losers.
- Private education/health/social services generated the only job gains of note.
- Although the county’s unemployment rate has declined in recent months, it still remains significantly higher than rates experienced during the height of the national recession.
- In June 2013, the county’s jobless rate measured a sickly 12.2 percent—more than double the state average of 4.7 percent. On the other hand, the job hemorrhaging seems to have ceased.
- First-time claims for unemployment insurance have settled to a pre-recession pattern. The seasonal leisure/hospitality services industry and the volatile construction industry display the largest number of new claims so far this year.
- Approvals for home permits slowed to a near year-over-year halt during the first quarter of 2013 failing to depart from the sluggish residential market evident for numerous years.
- On the other hand, improvements in new nonresidential permitting and residential alterations/additions/repairs pushed total values up more than 300 percent during the first three months of 2013.
- Gross taxable sales experienced a healthy gain at the start of 2013. Between the first quarters of 2012 and 2013, sales increased by 6 percent. In the last two years, only two quarters have demonstrated year-to-year declines.
