Michigan Depression/Recession Impacting Ann Arbor
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5/16/2009
Traditionally, Ann Arbor has been "relatively" insulated from national and state economic treads by the enormous budget and tax-free status of the University of Michigan. Apart from UM's direct spending and hiring, a large student population, many with parental support, helped keep a base of local service and supply businesses going. UM spin-offs also helped create jobs. While the rest of Michigan has long been economically depressed (for 10 years?), Ann Arbor was doing at least ok.
Now the situation has changed significantly. The state (like many others) has a huge budget shortfall and has been consistently threatening to reduce its contribution to the university's general fund. In anticipation of future cuts, and in a shift in the value placed on long-term staff, the university has, from my personal observations, been both downsizing staff, offering short-term staff positions, and when possible, replacing older workers with younger ones and students (who are less expensive and have lower benefits costs).
As the auto industry has collapsed into a much smaller configuration there has been a large ripple effect impact on all businesses in the state including hospital systems. As workers lose employment and retirements lose benefits, these hospital systems are seeing a sharp decline in demand for their services and they are now financially reeling from the loss of income.
Although our Governor has worked tirelessly to bring new industries into the state (and she started long before Wall Street's problems) that is a long-term fix that will only slowly help to create new jobs. Doing a job search for zip 48105, for example, reveals only a small number of opportunities in this area.
So while Ann Arbor is a great place to live, it is currently (2009) a difficult place to find a job and make a living.
Gordon | Ann Arbor, MI