Michigan led the way in job growth during July with a gain of 27,800 new jobs as the state's unemployment rate fell from 14.2 percent in July 2009 to 13.1 percent a year later, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Michigan, which had the nation's worst jobless rate during the economic decline, is still the toughest state to find a job as the Juju.com Job Search Difficulty Index shows that there are 8.24 job seekers for each available position.

But despite this clear difficulty facing Michigan workers, fiscal policy analyst with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy James Hohman told the news provider that signs point to the state's economy beginning to improve. "There's no guarantee, but evidence is building that Michigan has finally turned the corner. The private sector is starting to grow again." Hohman also said that Michigan has added jobs in three of the past four months, a feat that hasn't been accomplished in a "long time."

The Free Press says that the state's job increase has been spurred by the manufacturing industry, which added 20,000 jobs in July.

If Michigan is able to post a net jobs gain in 2010, it would be the first time since 2000, according to the news source.

With the national unemployment rate hovering around 9.5 percent according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan still has a long way to go to get on track with the rest of the country.