Michigan's official job creation numbers give a glimpse into how employment options are changing for the state's residents.

The overall picture from 2017 is one with $7.8 billion of private investment and 45,000 new jobs promised to the state, based on incentive programs funded by the public-private partnership at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Of those jobs, 16,690 were tied to state incentives, including tax breaks, according to MEDC mapping of the job creation from 850 projects. Public support for all projects totaled $657,519,383.

A closer look at the incentive job growth in Michigan shows that many are still tied to manufacturing and the automotive industry.

At the same time, most of the positions are headed to the southern Lower Peninsula, creating a geographic divide in opportunity at the same time the state is battling to increase its skilled workforce.

"The vast majority of Michigan (job growth) is south of a line from Saginaw to Ludington," said Charles Ballard, economist at Michigan State University. "I don't see that changing any time soon."

The geographic clustering mirrors what researchers are seeing nationally, with higher-skilled job growth taking place in metro areas. It's a phenomenon made obvious by Amazon's recent search for a new second headquarters in a city of one million people or more with access to technology talent, higher education and public transportation.

In Michigan, residents see it as businesses and the workforce expand in Detroit, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids, creating spikes in housing costs and increased services business in their wake.

But it's also playing out as Michigan's economic developers battle regionally and nationally to bring high-paying jobs to a state that already is struggling to fill its available jobs requiring skilled labor.

"Our biggest challenge is in the talent space," said Jeff Mason, CEO of the MEDC.

Michigan Economic Development Council projects map

This map from MEDC data shows all sponsored projects in 2017, and which ones included new jobs and required specific private funding.

Mason cited forecasts that call for 811,000 jobs paying at least $60,000 per year that will need to be filled in the state by 2024. Those jobs won't be low-skilled manufacturing positions that built Michigan's middle class. Instead, they'll be the types of jobs the state needs to preserve its middle earners - software developers, health care workers, people capable of programming and running advanced manufacturing equipment.

"How we fill those jobs is pretty important in term of the trajectory of the state," Mason said.

The MEDC is under Michigan's Department of Talent & Economic Development. The agency also operates the Talent Investment Agency, which tackles workforce development and other issues related to job skills.

It's the MEDC's role, as a public-private entity with a $53.7 million budget, to focus on "business development and attraction, community development, providing access to capital and improving Michigan's image and brand."

The jobs promised to Michigan through the MEDC in 2017, Mason's first year as CEO, represent about 50 percent more than the 30,300 annual goal.

The year-end report card compiled by the agency showed that it significantly exceeded other goals like private investment, business starts, revitalized building square footage and reactivated public spaces.

Yet the state found that in the 2017 fiscal year, many of the incentivized jobs paid less than the $2 per hour average wage increase sought. Last year's new jobs supported by tax incentives paid, on average, less than regional wages in 6 of the 9 regions that gained state-supported jobs. Officials say that gap is closing so far in 2018.

The wage disparity reached $4.21 per hour in the Upper Peninsula, where new jobs paid on average $14.09, and Metro Detroit, where the incentivized jobs paid $25.77 per hour, compared to the average regional wage that was $2.21 higher.

New jobs paid more in southwest Michigan, east central Michigan, and southeast Michigan outside of Metro Detroit.

The situation is improving so far in 2018, Mason said.

"We've seen a pretty big swing back the other way there," he said of the current fiscal year. Overall, the incentivized jobs are tracking at $5.50 per hour above regional wages.

"Certainly, we are interested in bringing better than average or average wages in terms of projects that we are incenting."

The wage disparity by region is only part of the geographic difference.

"What we're trying to do is make sure all areas of the state are able to fully participate in the economy," Mason said.

But in practice, the state-supported jobs are flowing into Metro Detroit and, to a lesser degree, the Flint/Saginaw area and greater Grand Rapids.

Of the 16,690 jobs supported by the MEDC in the 2017 fiscal year, 13,934 - or 84 percent - were located in those areas. Another 1,612 were along the I-94 corridor communities.

Yet in some of the areas of the state experiencing the highest unemployment and steepest per-capita income drops, it's a reminder that all job-creation is not equal in Michigan.

In 2017, only 2.5 percent of jobs receiving state tax incentives were created in Northern Michigan or the Upper Peninsula.

In the case of the Northeast region, zero jobs were committed among seven projects passing through the MEDC's programs in the region that includes cities like Alpena, West Branch and Cheboygan.

Searchable database: MEDC 2017 projects

Search by cities, companies or industries to find detailed lists of the funding, programs and jobs committed for each communtiy

Mason said he wouldn't call that type of jobs clustering a concern. Divisions of the MEDC are working with nearly 200 communities, many of them small, "to really help them plan for and identify what their assets are, and how those communities ... participate in the economy and be really successful."

But the numbers show that isn't likely to mean that a small town in upper Michigan will land enough significant numbers of new manufacturing jobs, like the 145 promised by Zhongding USA in Cadillac last year. More likely scenarios for larger commitments will be the 118 jobs coming to Traverse City with a new hotel on a former brownfield.

And the number of automotive related jobs still coming to Michigan will be increasingly focused on high-tech advanced manufacturing, including in the corridor from Detroit to Ann Arbor to East Lansing, Ballard said.

"A lot of that has to do with research," he said. "... It's not easy. We all wish that we could snap our fingers and bring a whole bunch of $30-an-hour jobs.

"But it's not easy to do that," Ballard said. "It's going to take time."

Over the course of the next several months, MLive will explore issues of economy, education and infrastructure, and what Michigan leaders need to do to create a better future. We'd love to hear from you, about your struggles and your wins, as you navigate Michigan's economic landscape. We want to use your voice and your questions to frame the conversation with candidates as we head into midterm elections. Have a story to share, send us an email to michiganbeyond@mlive.com