FLINT -- Flint’s economy is heading in the right direction, Mayor Dayne Walling said Friday.  The city’s unemployment rate dropped from 16.0% in December 2009 to 11.8% in December 2010. 

Walling said more than 1,000 jobs were created or maintained during that time, thanks to the city’s partnership with the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce.  More than half of those jobs are in health care, but other sectors include “hire education, alternative energy and a variety of professional services,” Walling said.

The team approached 2010 with the goal of creating one job for each of the 365 days in the year.  

“We reached that goal nearly three times over,” Walling told a gathering at Kettering University’s Innovation Center, the site of Swedish Biogas’ North American headquarters.  

Walling said the Innovation Center was the site of Friday’s announcement to underscore the region’s focus on innovation with job creation in the alternative energy sector among others.