“Michigan’s a hot spot right now,” he said. “People don’t look at it (that way) right now, but it’s looking up. I’m not discouraged.”

A recent MSU survey and new unemployment rates bolster Hochhalter’s confidence in the job market, as Gov. Rick Snyder announced last week that the state’s unemployment rate decreased to 8.3 percent, the lowest since 2008.

“For years, Michigan had the highest unemployment in the nation,” Snyder said on Twitter. “Today, we are only 0.2 percentage points above the national average (of 8.1 percent).”

Michigan’s unemployment still is the 13th highest in the nation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but overall, people seem to be feeling more upbeat. The national unemployment also has steadily fallen from 9.1 percent in June 2011 to 8.1 percent last month.

An MSU survey released last week found that Michigan residents are more positive about the state’s economy, according to economics professor Charles Ballard.

Ballard, director of the MSU State of the State Survey, said the economy’s improvement is reflected in how people feel about the government and their personal situations, and could contribute to a more upbeat attitude about the future.

Among the highlights of the survey:

The percent of respondents who rated their current financial situation as excellent or good rose from 47 percent in spring 2011 to 54 percent in spring 2012.

The percentage of respondents who answered they were better off than the year before rose sharply from the previous survey, from 20 percent in fall 2011 to 37 percent in spring 2012.
Sixty-one percent of respondents said they believed they will be better off one year from now.

Ballard also noted Snyder’s approval ratings increased in the survey, with more than 75 percent of respondents stating Snyder was doing a fair job or better.

For many recent graduates like Hochhalter, the announcement that unemployment is down might be welcome news, since a recent analysis by the Associated Press shows that half of recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed.

Hochhalter’s job search seemed daunting at times, especially when other people in his field were applying at the same time. But Hochhalter said he knows engineering degrees offer a variety of careers, a fact reiterated by the AP analysis, which showed the fields of science, education and health still are strong.

But not all job seekers are as upbeat about their prospects of employment here.

Kaitlyn Stalk, who graduated this spring with a history degree, said she primarily has focused on applying for international teaching jobs and has not looked too closely at jobs in Michigan.

“Honestly, my future job prospects in Michigan are slim to none,” she said. “I am not from Michigan, and all of the negative talk really steers me away from even trying to look for a job here.”