Economy of metropolitan Detroit
The metropolitan area surrounding and including Detroit, Michigan is a ten county area with a population of over 5.3 million, a workforce of 2.6 million, and about 247,000 businesses. Detroit's six county Metropolitan Statistical Area has a population of about 4.3 million, a workforce of about 2.1 million, and a Gross Metropolitan Product of $200.9 billion. Detroit's urban area has a population of 3.9 million. A 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers study estimated that Detroit's urban area had a Gross Domestic Product of $203 billion.
About 80,500 people work in downtown Detroit, comprising one-fifth of the city's employment base. Metro Detroit has propelled Michigan's national ranking in emerging technology fields such as life sciences, information technology, and advanced manufacturing; Michigan ranks fourth in the U.S. in high tech employment with 568,000 high tech workers, which includes 70,000 in the automotive industry. Michigan typically ranks third or fourth in overall research and development expenditures in the United States. Metro Detroit is second largest source of architectural and engineering job opportunities in the U.S. Detroit is known as the automobile capital of the world, with the domestic auto industry primarily headquartered in Metro Detroit. As of 2003, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers claimed that new vehicle production, sales, and jobs related to automobile use account for one of every ten jobs in the United States.
In April 2008, metropolitan Detroit's unemployment rate was 6.9 percent; in November 2012, it was 7.9 percent. Economic issues include the city of Detroit's unemployment rate at 15.8 percent in April 2012. The suburbs typically have low unemployment. The metropolitan economy began an economic recovery in 2010.
From the metro area economy, Michigan was second in the U.S. in 2004 for in new corporate facilities and expansions. From 1997 to 2004, Michigan was the only state to top the 10,000 mark for the number of major new developments. Among metro areas with more than one million people, Metro Detroit was fourth in the U.S. from 2007 to 2009 for new corporate facilities and expansions.Metro Detroit has one of the nation's largest office markets with 147,880,000 square feet (13,739,000 m2). Major inter-connected office complexes include the 5,500,000 sq ft (510,000 m2) Renaissance Center, the 2,200,000 sq ft (200,000 m2) Southfield Town Center, and the 1,395,000 sq ft (129,600 m2) Cadillac Place joined with the 487,000 sq ft (45,240 m2) Fisher Building in the historic New Center area.
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