Indiana’s unemployment rate stands at 3.6 percent for November 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 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 had a ranking of 57th with an unemployment rate of 3.4 in November. While the rate stayed the same as the October rate, and ranking moved them from 52nd to 57th.
Taking a look at counties surrounding Marshall you will find Starke County 18th on the November list with a rate of 4.2, this is a slight increase from the October rate of 4.1. Rates for several of the previous months include: the September rate of 3.7; August rate of 4.4 and July rate of 4.3.
Fulton County is 42nd on the list for Nov. with a rate of 3.6. They were 48th on the list of 92 counties in Oct. with a rate of 3.5. Looking back a little further, Fulton county had rates of 3.1 in Sept.; 3.6 in August and 3.3 in July.
Pulaski County had a rate of 3.1 in November ranking them 72nd. Their October rate was 3.1 ranked 6has moved down the list of counties and is 67th; September was 57th with a rate of 2.8.
St. Joseph County’s rate of 3.7 ranked them 38th in November.
Kosciusko County continues to hold steady with a November rate of 2.9 ranking them 84th. In October they had a rate of 2.8 ranking their 85th of the 92 counties. They were 85th in September with a rate of 2.3, 79th in August with a rate of 3.1 and 81st in July with a rate of 2.8. The September rate of 2.3 moved them up to 85th.
Elkhart County is creeping up the list of counties after having been at the bottom of the list in July with an unemployment rate of 2.6. In August they were 88th on the list with a rate of 2.9. September saw them move up to 85th with a rate of 2.3. Elkhart County’s October rate of 2.9 moved them up to 78th in the rankings of Indiana’s 92 counties and now in November 78th with a rate of 3.0.
Indiana’s labor force had a net increase of 2,216 over the previous month. This was a result of a 2,122 increase in unemployed residents and an increase of 94 employed residents. Indiana’s total labor force, which includes both Hoosiers employed and those seeking employment, stands at 3.40 million, and the state’s 65.1 percent labor force participation rate remains above the national rate of 62.9 percent.
