There’s good news and bad news when it comes to the state rankings in the Business Leaders for Michigan’s benchmarking report, released this morning at the Michigan CEO Summit in Detroit.
The good news: Michigan’s economic growth has outpaced nearly all other U.S. states since 2009. The report shows the state has succeeded in stabilizing its economy, lowering business costs and becoming more competitive.
The bad news is Michigan has a ways to go to get the top 10 states listed in the report.
Top 10 states are, in order of overall standing, North Dakota, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Wyoming, Washington, Alaska, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Iowa. They were selected based on their average ranking on key job, economic, personal income and population indicators from 2004 to 2014.
Some of Michigan’s shortfalls in the report include:
Per capita personal income in the state continues to grow faster than most states, but the absolute level is still $11,000 below the top 10 average.
Michigan’s employment, per capita income and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) have all grown faster than top 10 states, but Michigan is below average with rankings of 46th in annual unemployment, 36th in per capita income and 34th in per capita GDP.
While Michigan’s population has grown for the third consecutive year and ranks 10th in the nation, top 10 states, on average, grew seven times faster.
Only 22 percent of Michigan high school students are career- and college-ready.
Michigan’s educational attainment levels rank 31st in the country.
Top 10 states spend more than double what Michigan does on economic development.
About 500 senior leaders from business, policy, education and advocacy met at the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit for updates and discussion on the state’s economic growth.
“If Michigan is to evolve beyond its old, cyclical economy, we must innovate to add value in other key areas,” Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, said in a news release. “We need to do much more to excite the interest of site selectors and talented younger workers.”
Business Leaders for Michigan believes if the state performed like a Top 10 state, 120,000 more Michigan residents would be working, they would make $11,000 more in income and there would be $13,000 more GDP per person.
