"Over the course of the last seven or eight years, we've seen a major change and it continues that way.”

In a 2019 article about how rural Michigan is struggling, journalist Paula Gardner quoted Jill Sutton, executive director of the Mid-Michigan Community in Clare, as she explained that their work helping the poor become self-sufficient is getting harder. Job opportunities are scarce, and wages are low. People who have never sought help before now need it.

Gardner explains:

The new type of technology-centered automotive jobs coming to Michigan aren't creating the same kind of middle class-wealth that helped the state's cities and rural areas generations ago.

The high-paying, low-skill jobs promised to high school graduates by the manufacturing sector are a thing of Michigan's past, according to experts.

And residents in Michigan's rural areas recognize the change.

Click to read, “Poverty’s grip chokes rural Michigan.”