If people are becoming discouraged, that shows that our economy is not producing the kind of jobs we need.

In a down economy, when people are let go from their jobs and they are unable to walk across the street and get another job immediately, there's a much greater chance they're going to be angry and upset.

Our economy now is based on tourism and people who come here with other jobs because of the quality of life.

What's great to me is that we're building jobs, and we're really building northern Michigan's brand. We're helping the economy here.

Small to midsize companies are the ones adding jobs to the economy. But you also have to look outside the Rochester region for business.

Those jobs look fairly good going into 2006. We won't see a lot of hiring there, but the economy looks strong enough to maintain level of employment we have.