Industry Employment

Michigan’s overall employment levels have been growing at a modest pace in the past two years. When it comes to employment, education, and health services, growth is expected to slow due to cuts to federal funding for Medicaid and other essential programs (Burton et al., 2025). Michigan’s manufacturing and retail trade sectors are expected to lose jobs in the next few years; however, researchers express a high degree of uncertainty in this forecast, as it is unknown how tariffs will impact jobs (Burton et al., 2025).

An estimated 24% of Lenawee residents 16 years of age and older are employed in educational, healthcare, and social assistance professions, and manufacturing is the second highest employment industry at an estimated 20% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019-2023d). Recent announcements of the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Act and the closing of Siena Heights University may impact employment rates in the future, as hospitals around the country, specifically rural ones, are expected to close in the coming years due to budget cuts. In Michigan, rural hospitals are expected to experience just over $2 billion in impacts (losses) over the next 10 years, according to the American Hospital Association (2025). How and to what degree these budget cuts and potential hospital closures will affect Lenawee County directly remains to be seen; however, this trend will be important to monitor in the coming three to five years.