Members of the Detroit Mastermind Group discussed Michigan’s current economic position as compared to that of the overall US economy with their guest speaker, Martin Lavelle, business economist from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. One area of discussion was unemployment rate and wage growth. Despite Michigan’s unemployment rate of just over 4% (compared to overall US unemployment at 3.6%), wage growth in the state is outpacing that of the US (at 4-4.5% in Michigan compared to 3-3.5% US-wide). Key differentiators in the state involved older individuals entering or stayng in the job market longer, higher number of part time workers and a large sector who cannot move within the state to find work, especially skilled labor.