The Governor spent a lot of her State of the State address talking about bringing new jobs into the state and bragged about the jobs the state has created.

The Governor said, "In fact since we made bipartisan changes to our economic development incentives last year, Michigan's Economic Development Agency, the MEDC had the best six months ever in its history for creating jobs: 55,000 jobs; $4.7 billion dollars of investment; 84 companies. This despite the recession just since August. Those jobs and businesses are listed on our website at www.michigan.gov/jobs"

Sounds great. She invited all of us to take a look at those jobs on the state's website. So i did.

What I found is the subject of a Fact Finder Report.

True, there are thousands of jobs and projects listed. And they are located in communities like Grand Rapids, Novi, Ann Arbor, Livonia, and Detroit.

Of the hundreds of projects listed, I only found six in northern Michigan. Two each in Traverse City and Mason County and one each in Cadillac and Big Rapids.

And combined they are projected to create 551 jobs. Most of those from an possible future expansion of Hagerty Insurance.

These jobs equal one percent of the total number of jobs the Michigan Economic Development Corporation brought to the state. And those jobs haven't all been created yet, and might not be.

To be fair, some of those downstate communities have unemployment rates above the state average of 10.6%, but others are well below like Oakland at 8.6% unemployment in December. That's one of the lowest in the state. While Grand Traverse County has 10% unemployment and Wexford is at more than 15%!  In fact all but two northern Michigan counties are above the state average.

So, is the state doing enough to bring jobs to northern Michigan? Leave your comments.