Wait, it gets worse. That number only includes the number of jobs lost up until the end of June, not the 15 other days thus far in July. The rate jumped 1.1% from the end of May until the end of June, so with economists projecting rising unemployment through the rest of the year and into 2010, we can pretty much expect that July will see the rate nearing 16%.

Michigan’s unemployment rate spiked higher in June, hitting 15.2%, the highest rate since mid-1983.

That jump marked an increase of 1.1 percentage points over the May rate of 14.1%. The June rate was more than 7 percentage points higher than the 8.1% rate of June 2008.

“Several key industry sectors in Michigan showed weakness in June, led by a large drop in manufacturing jobs as restructuring in the auto industry continued,” said Rick Waclawek, director of the state’s Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives. “In addition to the auto impact, the jobless rate increase also reflected large numbers of job seekers pursuing seasonal jobs in June.”

Michigan, under the governance of Democrat Jennifer Granholm, has long seen a rising unemployment rate that has remained the highest in the nation for years. However, with the stimulus package failing to stimulate anything; government taking over industries it’s destined to run even more inefficiently than they’re run now; the job-killing cap-and-trade legislation possibly passing Congress; taxes on job creators raised to pay for the socialization of health-care; and the imminent high-inflation resulting from the pumping of cash into the economy, it’s unclear how much longer the rest of America will lag behind Michigan’s unemployment rate.

This is just the latest in a long train of bad economic news. You know what that means, right? It’s time for Democrats to launch their witch-hunts of Bush Administration officials over supposed “secret” programs that the public has known about for 7 years now. Because we can’t have the public focusing on the failure of the White House and Congress to stop the bleeding they insisted would  be accomplished through the passage of an $800 billion porkulus bill.