MI Unemployment Drops Slightly Again

Michigan’s unemployment rate improves a little bit once again.

The Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth says today that it went down to 14.3% in January, the most recent month available.

It’s the 4th straight month that that’s happened.

Still, the jobless rate was a little over 11% at the same point a year earlier.

It’s been within a very narrow range since last summer, sitting between 14.2% and 14.5% since last July.

But the damage had already been done earlier in 2009 — the unemployment rate climbed more than 3 full points in the first 6 months of last year.

Michigan’s jobless rate has been the highest in the country, either on its own or tied for that spot, every month for the past 4 years.