Michigan’s Housing Market Improving, Employment Key Concern: IHS

In a report from ""IHS Global Insight"":http://www.ihs.com/products/global-insight/index.aspx, economic issues in Michigan were examined as part of the research firm's analysis of the 12 swing states.

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While sales and housing starts have made strides in the state, IHS still found lots of room for improvement.

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For example, housing starts, prices, and sales while rising, are still at 19.8 percent, 75.2 percent, and 79.9 percent of their respective, pre-recession peaks, and construction employment has fallen below the recession-era low.

""Demand will have to be great enough to clear the existing inventory of housing stock before it can drive significant growth in new starts and stimulate construction payrolls,"" IHS stated.

IHS also expects growth to slow for employment, real income, and real gross state product into 2013.

The state's unemployment rate is projected to hover below 9 percent before the end of the year and stay around 8 percent into 2013.

The research firm also pointed to concerns for Michigan regarding the relocation of manufacturing companies to places with cheaper labor since manufacturing wages are slightly higher in Michigan than the rest of the U.S.

Even with this outlook, Michigan is said to hold an advantage â€" ""a large, skilled, and experienced workforce."" The state's workforce might be enough to keep manufacturing jobs on the short term, but consequences of higher wages are expected to push jobs out of the state over time.