October 22, 2018
Indiana’s unemployment rate stands at 3.5 percent for September and remains lower than the national rate of 3.7 percent. With the exception of one month when it was equal (October 2014), Indiana’s unemployment rate now has been below the U.S. rate for nearly five years. The monthly unemployment rate is a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicator that reflects the number of unemployed people seeking employment within the prior four weeks as a percentage of the labor force.
Marshall County was ranked 58th in the September 2018 unemployment rankings by counties with a rate of 2.8 a substantial drop from the 3.5 rate in August. In the July report the county was ranked 57th with a rate of 3.2. Looking back over the past couple of years you will find the September Marshall County unemployment rates at 3.0 in 2017, 3.5 in 2016, 3.5 in 2015 and 4.9 in 2014.
Taking a look at counties surrounding Marshall you will find Starke County at number 12 on the list of counties with a rate of 3.7 another improvement from the 4.4 in August and 4.3 in July.
Fulton County is 36th on the list of counties with a rate of 3.1 an improvement from the August rate of 3.6 and the July rate of 3.3.
Pulaski County is 57th on the list of counties with a rate of 2.8 and St. Joseph County’s rate was 3.2 in September an improvement from the 4.1 in August and the 3.7 in July.
Kosciusko County continues to creep up the list of counties and while they were 81st in July with a rate of 2.8 they were 79th in August with an unemployment rate of 3.1 and in September 85th with a rate of 2.3.
Elkhart County has been near the bottom of the list of counties for months but their September rate of 2.3 moved them up to 85th. In July 2018 they were at bottom of the list of counties with the best unemployment rate, a 2.6. For August they are 88th on the list of counties with a rate of 2.9.
Indiana’s labor force had a net increase of 4,564 over the previous month. This was a result of a 337 decrease in unemployed residents and an increase of 4,901 employed residents. Indiana’s total labor force, which includes both Hoosiers employed and those seeking employment, stands at 3.39 million, and the state’s 65.1 percent labor force participation rate remains above the national rate of 62.7 percent.
In addition, the number of Indiana’s ongoing regular unemployment insurance claims is the lowest since 1976, when UI claims were first recorded.