By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


It’s estimated that about one-fifth of Livingston County residents are out of work due to the coronavirus shutdown.

According to figures compiled by Bridge Magazine, the county’s unemployment rate in February, before the virus came to Michigan, was 3%, with just over 3,100 of the 103,000 member labor force out of work. But April’s estimated unemployment will be 20.1%, with 20,783 jobless county residents as of April 18th. The magazine’s analysis found that those counties with a more diversified workforce fared better than those with what was called a “monoculture” by John Austin, director of the Michigan Economic Center.

To the south, Washtenaw County is expected to have half the unemployment of Livingston, with a 10.5% jobless rate. However, that could change with word this week that the University of Michigan may need to start laying off portions of the university’s 49,000-employee workforce, among the largest in the state. But Oakland and Ingham counties, to the east and west of Livingston, also have lower anticipated jobless rate. Oakland is predicted to have a 16.5% unemployment rate, despite being one of the counties in the state hardest hit by coronavirus. Ingham County will likely have a 15.3% rate. To the north, Genesee County, at 28.3% and Shiawassee County at 27%, have significantly higher rates than Livingston County’s 20.1%.

However, the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. U of M economists expect the state will have lost 1.2 million jobs by the time the second quarter ends in June. That is nearly ten times the number of jobs that were lost in the first quarter of 2009 during the Great Recession, and includes an estimated 740,000 workers who are still being paid now, but will either exhaust their paid time off in May or have employers who will be less able to maintain idle workers on their payrolls.