One Michigan County Predicting Enormous Job Growth

The forecast is excellent for one Michigan county, as it expects to add over 11,000 jobs in the next three years.

Washtenaw County predicts that 11,038 will be created, primarily in the Ann Arbor area by the end of 2014. This is according to an economic study conducted for AnnArbor.com by the University of Michigan.

Economists George Fulton and Don Grimes conducted the study, and predict that the majority of new jobs will not be manufacturing-based.

“Getting the job growth in the higher paying industries is really what you want to have,” Grimes said. “Eventually that shows up in the long run in the prosperity of the community.”

They say non-manufacturing jobs will generate approximately 58% of new jobs.

The fastest-growth segment of the economy over the next three years will be in high-wage industries, which the economists define as more than $57,000. The number of high-wage jobs is expected to rise 7.7 percent through 2014. The number of jobs with wages of $27,000 to $57,000 will increase 5.9 percent, while the number of jobs with salaries below $27,000 will rise 4.4 percent.

Read more of the study's findings here, and let us know if you agree with its findings.