Using 21 key metrics, personal finance website Wallet Hub determined which states are recovering from the pandemic the fastest.
Iowa, Nebraska and Alaska are at the top of the list, and Michigan is dead last.
Why does Michigan come in dead last on the Wallet Hub pandemic recovery list? Paul Isely is the Associate Dean in the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University and detailed three central reasons behind the economic struggles.
“So, this is an effect of one; we did do a harsher shutdown, two; we had some bad luck when we got hit with the Alpha variant," Isely said.
Also known as the U.K variant, it spread across the state back in March and April when the study was conducted.
“And those variants didn’t make it to the rest of the United States until two, three, four weeks later," Isely said. "Well, they had many more people vaccinated by the time those variants were hitting than we did here in Michigan".
Number three is found in Michigan's manufacturing industry, specifically automotive manufacturing. One in five Michigan jobs are tied directly, or indirectly, to auto production.
“Our exposure to manufacturing is really being effected by the supply bottlenecks that are happening around the world," Isley explained. “With automotive, the decrease in chip production really is effecting our ability to keep plants open".
Isely forecasts automotive production will drop 5-to-10-percent this year decreasing the growth of the Michigan economy by two percent.