LANSING – Michigan’s economy is growing for the fifth consecutive year and will grow for at least two more years, economists told the Revenue Estimating Conference, as current economic factors remain stable and growing stronger.
The pace of some of the growth will slow somewhat, for example job growth, as long pent-up consumer demand for some products begins to settle down. Even so, demand should not taper back so much to jeopardize the economy, they said.
However, even with the continued growth, Michigan’s economy will not have fully recovered to the levels it saw before the beginning of its decade-long struggle in 2000.
George Fulton, director of the Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics at the University of Michigan said the state lost 856,000 jobs during that time and has gained back 281,300. If job growth continues as forecast, by the end of 2016, the state should see 463,100 jobs.
That would be 54 percent of all the jobs lost the previous decade, he said.
Michigan’s growth will depend on national economic growth, and that too is expected to continue.
Daniil Manaenkov, also of the RSQE, said there has been some softness in the housing sectors – in part because investors and financial companies overreacted to announcements the Federal Reserve would begin cutting back on bond buying which drove up mortgage rates and slowed home sales – but that should begin to recover.
Manufacturing has rebounded from some earlier slow periods, overall job growth should average around 260,000 a month going forward, and the overall labor participation rate should continue to improve, he said.
Manaenkov said he did not think the Federal Reserve would boost interest rates until sometime late in 2015, and then ongoing increases will be moderate and controlled. Those factors will help keep inflation largely in check.
Overall, the national GDP should grow at 3.2 percent to 3.6 percent over the next several years, he said.
Fulton said Michigan’s economic recovery is becoming more broad-based which is better for the economy in general.
He also said motor vehicle sales should return to the level of sales of 16 million units a year. Vehicle sales had averaged that before the onset of the Great Recession in 2008 and have not hit that level since.
Also, he said the market share of the Detroit-based automakers will continue to increase, though it will remain below 50 percent. In 2016, annual sales should be about 16.7 million units, and the Detroit maker’s market share should be 45 percent.
In terms of overall job growth, 2014 will be a little slower than previous years, mostly because the winter pushed off much expansion. In 2014, Mr. Fulton said, the state should see about 41,200 jobs. That should increase to 61,700 jobs in 2015 and then to 68,600 jobs in 2016.
For 2014, Fulton said, the state’s unemployment rate should average 7.4 percent (which is where the April jobless rate stood at recently). By 2016, the jobless rate should fall to 6.3 percent, he said, which would match the jobless rate in 2006.
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