The Michigan Public Radio Network's Rick Pluta reports, "the combination of a slight increase in jobs and a lot of people who quit looking for work led to Michigan's unemployment to drop by half a percentage point last month to 10.6 percent."
More from the Detroit Free Press:
Michigan’s unemployment rate is moving in the right direction again, dropping half a percentage point during October to 10.6%, the state’s Department of Technology, Management & Budget reported today. But the state’s labor markets remain far from healthy. The jobless rate decline in October was due mainly to fewer unemployed people actively seeking employment, said Rick Waclawek, director of the Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives. Such “discouraged” workers are no longer counted in the calculation of the unemployment rate.