West Mich. pulling away from Metro Detroit in job growth

Downtown Grand Rapids

The post-recession resurgence of West Michigan has accelerated to the extent that the areas around Grand Rapids are attracting far more new jobs than tri-county Metro Detroit.
Part two of Bridge Magazine’s report on the Michigan economy finds that, among Michigan's Top 10 counties for jobs growth from 2005-2013, two West Michigan counties – Ottawa and Kent – added more jobs than the next eight counties combined.

Relying on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Bridge reported that Kent, home of Grand Rapids, added 23,728 jobs and neighboring Ottawa added 6,235 since 2005. That’s just over 30,000 in total. The next eight counties on the list added fewer than 28,000 jobs. In the first three quarters of 2014, the latest data available, Kent added another 16,000 jobs, best in the state, while Ottawa added more than 8,000.

Here’s more from Bridge’s economic profile:

“Two other West Michigan counties made the top 10 for jobs added in 2014. Allegan County was sixth, adding 4,043 jobs, and Ionia County was seventh, adding 3,863 jobs. At the other end of the spectrum, sparsely populated areas were hardest hit by percentage job losses from 2005 to 2013 – the Bottom 10 list is entirely comprised of rural counties.

“… The bulk of Michigan's job losses were in auto-dependent Southeast Michigan, slammed by the near-collapse of the automobile industry. Wayne County lost 93,151 jobs since since 2005. Oakland County lost 22,389 and Macomb County lost 19,354 -- nearly 90 percent of the state's total job loss in that period.
“Southeast Michigan did chip away at those cumulative job losses in 2014, as Oakland County added 15,242 jobs in the first nine months of 2014, Wayne County added 9,574 and Macomb County added 6,865. But the portion of added jobs was modest compared to West Michigan, with job increases never rising above 2.3 percent in Metro Detroit’s Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. By contrast, Kent County's added 4.6 percent more jobs the first three quarters of 2014 and Ottawa County 7.6 percent.”

Sounds like L. Brooks Patterson, Mark Hackel and Warren Evans have some serious competition on their hands from Michigan’s west coast.