September 2011 Indiana Employment Report

10/24/11 Indiana added 8,800 private sector jobs in September, but also experienced an uptick in the unemployment rate. The preliminary seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate went from 8.7 to 8.9 percent in September. The U.S. rate remained flat at 9.1 percent this month. Indiana continues to be below all of our neighboring states for the eighth month in a row.

“The increase of 8,800 jobs is good news,” said Mark W. Everson, Commissioner of the Department of Workforce Development. “Together with the upward revision of August jobs by 2,800 we’ve seen a total increase of 11,600 since the last report. Nevertheless, more Hoosiers returned to the labor force to look for work, so there was an uptick in the unemployment rate.”

Marshall County’s unemployment rate actually dropped slightly from August to September.  In April the rate was 9.0 while May saw it increase to 9.1.  June again saw a slight increase up to 9.2 and July’s rate was 9.3.  August saw a slightly larger increase with a rate of 9.5 ranking Marshall County 27^thof the 92 counties.  In September Marshall County’s rate was 9.2 ranking them 30^th in the state.  Other counties around the area saw a mix of changes…Elkhart County went up from 10.7 to 11.1 and Kosciusko increased from 7.9 to 8.0.  Fulton County saw a decrease from 8.7  to 8.5 while Starke County saw a slight decrease from 10.3 to 10.1 and Saint Joseph County also dropping from  9.9 in August to 9.6 in September.

Fayette County continues at the top of the list with an unemployment rate of 12.0 down from 12.1 in August.  Elkhart is back up to number 2 in the state.  The county at the bottom of the list, Dubois County saw a slight decreases from 6.1 in August and 6.0 in September.