Indiana’s unemployment rate stands at 3.6 percent for March and remains lower than the national rate of 3.8 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 more than 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’s unemployment rate has continued to see a decrease this year. The January rate was 4.2 and the February rate dropped down to 4.0. The March rate was just released and it went down to 3.7. That puts the Marshall County 55th on the list of 92 counties.
Taking a looking back at the March rates over the past several years you will see the improvements. The 2018 rate was 3.1. Looking at years farther back you see a rate of 3.2 in 2017; 4.7 in 2016; 5.1 in 2015; 6.5 in 2014 and 9.5 in 2013.
Looking at the counties that surround Marshall you find LaPorte 4th of the 92 counties with a rate of 5.6 a decrease from their February rate of 5.9.
Starke County is right behind LaPorte with a rate of 5.4 and ranked 5th in March. This is an improvement from their February rate of 5.8.
Fulton County’s rate improved to 4.1 slightly better than their February and March rate of 4.3. Fulton County is ranked 31st of the list of Indiana counties.
Pulaski County also saw a rate improvement. Their March rate was 3.6 ranking them 58. This was better than their rate of 4.0 in February.
Rounding out the counties that surround Marshall you will find Elkhart County at 76th on the list of counties with a rate of 3.2 which is a slight improvement from their February rate of 3.4 and the January rate of 3.7.
Kosciusko County moved up to 85th with a March rate of 3.0. In February they were 88th on the list of counties with a rate of 3.2 and their January rate was 3.5.
Indiana’s labor force had a net increase of 6,769 over the previous month. This was a result of an increase of 2,634 unemployed residents and an increase of 4,135 employed residents. Indiana’s total labor force, which includes both Hoosiers employed and those seeking employment, stands at 3.41 million, and the state’s 65.3 percent labor force participation rate remains above the national rate of 63.0 percent.
