Economists at the University of Michigan forecast Michigan’s economy is strong enough to manage a mild recession on the horizon.
Michigan is not expected to be rocked by a recession like it has been in the past. But workers probably won’t make any gains. Gabriel Ehrlich heads up a team of economists at the University of Michigan as Director of the Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics. He says disposable income per capita in Michigan will remain flat as it has since 2019.
“So even though, you know, we’re relatively optimistic about Michigan’s economy, you know, relative to the national recession that we’re forecasting, we expect living standards to be basically flat for five years," Ehrlich said.
For the most part, rising wages have been eaten up by inflation. The economy is expected to pull out of the recession in 2024. That’s likely the soonest Michigan workers can hope to see their buying power increase.
The upside of 2022 is that there’s been a big recovery in the labor market, so more people have jobs.