The economy of metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, is a key pillar of the economy of the United States. Its ten county area has 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. 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 May 2012, it was 9.9 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
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