By Associated Press
Undated – Michigan's state demographer says Michigan's one-state recession might have ended in 2007 if the national economy hadn't started sliding into a deep recession right about then.
Ken Darga said in his analysis Tuesday that there's no question Michigan's one-state recession is over. But he questions why the state suddenly saw job gains shrink among new and expanding businesses from 2002-07.
He says the state was beginning to climb out of recession in 2002, but that effort suddenly stalled midyear. Darga says it's highly unusual that Michigan saw its number of new jobs drop when they should have been gaining, a pattern that lasted until early 2007.
He says the abrupt drop isn't explained by the auto industry's decline or business tax rates.