Fenobia I. Dallas, Ph.D.
Professor of Rhetoric and Professional Writing
Department of Rhetoric & Professional Writing
Saginaw Valley State University
7400 Bay Road
University Center, MI 48710

Saginaw Thinks: The Institute for Social Justice

There are some federal and state issues that concern the community. These issues require more research and analysis to ascertain the direct impact, which can lead to transformative change.

"African American labor force and unemployment information."

In routine reports or discussions on unemployment figures in the Saginaw area, often the Bureau of Labor statistics are used. The figures most often used are those of the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which comprises the city of Saginaw, and North Saginaw (Charter) Township. Separating the city data from the township data offers a more accurate reporting of city data, as the economic situations of these two municipalities are extremely different:

- the annual unemployment rate of the MSA was 12.2% in 2009
- the annual unemployment rate of the township was 6.5% in 2009
- the annual unemployment of the city was 20.3% in 2009.

The separating data for North Saginaw Township and South Saginaw Township needs to be verified, as this seeming arbitrary separation done by BLS is not a local initiative, and could be based upon zip codes rather than map coordinates.

Providing accurate local data to city officials, businesses, concerned citizens, and the media can be instrumental in policy changes, business decisions, planning documents, and job training needs.

BLS.gov:
The city of Saginaw series: LAUPA26030003
North Saginaw Township series: LAUCT26135003
MSA series: LAUMT26409803,LAUMT26409804,LAUMT26409805,LAUMT26409806
Saginaw County series: LAUCN26145003,LAUCN26145004,LAUCN26145005,LAUCN26145006
Michigan series: LASST26000003,LASST26000004,LASST26000005,LASST26000006

Saginaw_labor_data.xlsx, 2015 compilation.

Other initiatives include:

Set up Think Tank stakeholders for Saginaw data
- knowledge economy
- unemployment
- poverty
- begin drafting the Black Papers