Final Push in MI Works! Job Growth Survey

Area groups dedicated to job growth want to hear from more people in the U.P. about how the economy looks to you and what can be done to reverse recent job losses.

They’ve heard from nearly 600 people, but they want to push that to at least 1,000 by the end of February.

The idea is to keep young people from having to leave the region to make a good living, a commonly-heard complaint.

Marinette and Florence Counties is Wisconsin are also part of this.

Michigan Works! executive director of business services Robert Eslinger says that even with the state line separating those 2, their work forces and major industries are similar to what you find on the U.P. side of the line.

He says that’s especially true with the former NewPage paper mill in Niagara that shut down last year.

More than half its employees at the time of its closure lived in the U.P.

EVEN WITH THE STATE LINE SEPARATING THEM…

THEIR SIMILAR WORK FORCES AND SIMILAR MAJOR INDUSTRIES MAKES THEM A NATURAL.

The U.P. Economic Development Alliance and Northstar Economics are teaming up with Michigan Works! on the survey.

The opinions the groups want are limited to the 17 counties, but the trends they’re looking at are not.

Eslinger says they’re also interested in how other Wisconsin counties are doing, as well as some in Michigan below the bridge, because those can affect the U.P. as well.

You can take the survey at any U.P. Michigan works office.

It’s also on the Internet.

One of the sites where you can find it is Michigan Works’ website, www.jobforce.org .