Report Examines West MI Economic Recovery

money47-15
money47-15

A new report from the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research takes a look at west Michigan’s economy now versus at the start of the Great Recession. Upjohn economist Brian Pittelko tells WSJM News they looked at data from January of 2007 through the end of 2009. What’s striking is how slow the economic recovery was.

“It took a long time to recover,” Pittelko said. “Most metropolitan areas recovered only in the last couple of years, or in the case of the Niles-Benton Harbor area, it hadn’t recovered fully by the end of 2016, I think just nudged over the top early at some point this year.”

Pittelko says the manufacturing sector in Berrien County continues to be weaker than it was at the start of 2007. However, the leisure and hospitality industry has grown 27% since then with 12.8% of the county’s workers now employed in that sector. He says you start to see why they called it the “Great Recession” when you consider the fact that the region has still just barely recovered.