Unemployment Rates Keep Dropping

Article by KPC Media | KPC News | October 22, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS — Reversing an up and down nature of unemployment rates that have characterized much of this year, northeast Indiana saw unemployment rates decline for the second month straight.

The result was unemployment rates that are starting to inch toward the unthinkable, nearly below the 2% level.

Indiana economists have been saying for weeks that the state is at full employment.

Both LaGrange and Steuben counties clocked in with 2.2% unemployment for September, which was tied for the eighth lowest unemployment rate in the state.

DeKalb County’s unemployment, at 2.4%, was third lowest in the four-county area, with Noble County coming in at 2.6%

Dubois County in southern Indiana had the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 1.9%.

Indiana’s unemployment rate continued to drop to drop also, coming it at 3.2% for September, which is lower than the national rate of 3.5%. The last time Indiana’s unemployment rate was lower than 3.2%% was December 2000.

The monthly unemployment rate is a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicator that reflects the number of unemployed people seeking employment within the prior four weeks as a percentage of the labor force.

Indiana’s labor force had a net decrease of 2,722 over the previous month. This was a result of a decrease of 2,934 unemployed residents and an increase of 212 employed residents. Indiana’s total labor force, which includes both Hoosiers employed and those seeking employment, stands at 3.38 million, and the state’s 64.5% labor force participation rate remains above the national rate of 63.2%.

Additionally, this month had the lowest unemployment insurance claims in the reference week — which falls on the 12th of the month — in 2019.

Learn more about how unemployment rates are calculated here: hoosierdata.in.gov/infographics/employment-status.asp.

Article source: https://www.kpcnews.com/heraldrepublican/article_16a01b1c-f6db-5344-acf3-a2944e144bf9.html