03/21/14 Indiana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped 0.4 percent to 6.4 percent in January and is now at the lowest point since September of 2008 (6.3 percent). The rate of unemployment in Indiana remains below all neighboring states and is now lower than the national rate by 0.2 percent. Prior to the benchmarking process, the last time Indiana’s rate was lower than the national rate was June of 2012.
Despite a gain of 4,600 jobs in the manufacturing sector, Indiana shed a total of 7,100 private sector jobs in January mainly due to the extreme nature of the winter season, which has been cited by the U.S. Federal Reserve as one of the chief cases of employment contracting throughout the country.
Taking a look locally we find Marshall County 35th on the list of 92 counties with an unemployment rate of 7.1. which is up from 6.8 in December. In November the rate was 7.4.
Counties surrounding Marshall are: LaPorte at 9.0, St. Joseph at 7.3, Elkhart at 6.2, Kosciusko at 5.4, Fulton County at 8.8, Pulaski at 6.0 and Starke County at 8.5.
Scott B Sanders, Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development said, “There are positives to note this month. Indiana’s unemployment rate is not only lower than our neighboring states, but the national rate as well. In addition 2,700 Hoosiers returned to the labor force and fewer were unemployed in January that at any time since August of 2008, causing our rate to fall almost one-half of a percentage point in one month.”
