Email Address Still, the pandemic hit Michigan hard. Payrolls stood at 4 million in November, down 9.4% from a year earlier for one of the steepest drops among states, Labor Department data show. The slow comeback from auto-plant closures in spring, though, is now being aided by a slowing infection rate. Meanwhile, places like Kalamazoo are likely to be helped by a pandemic-driven exodus from big cities that’s drawing more families to smaller communities. “People are looking for less friction in their lives” and the work-from-home trend illustrates jobs can be effectively performed away from the office, according to Ross DeVol, chief executive officer of Heartland Forward, an institute for urban development.