Michael Rogers, Vice President Communications for the Small Business Association of Michigan, talks about the Spring State-of-the-State Survey with Michigan State University Economist, Charles Ballard. In the spring survey, released today, 60 percent of residents rated their financial situation as good or excellent, the best since 2002, when the highest-ever mark of 66 percent was recorded. Further, 69 percent believe they’ll be better off a year from now – just off the high of 72 percent in 1999.

Those numbers jive with a robust employment picture. Some 450,000 jobs have been added since Michigan’s economy bottomed out in early 2010, and the state’s unemployment rate finally drew even with the national rate this spring. But Michigan is still 400,000 jobs below its peak level reached in 2000, Ballard said, and the distribution of income is much more unequal than it was a few decades ago.