Indiana’s unemployment rate continues to drop to 3.2 percent for September and remains lower than the national rate of 3.5 percent. The last time Indiana’s unemployment rate was lower than 3.2 percent was December 2000. 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 September 2019 unemployment rate was 2.7 ranking up 46th of the 92 counties in Indiana. This rate is an improvement from the 3.0 ranking from August. Looking back, Marshall County had a rate of 3.0 in August, 3.0 in June, 2.8 in May, 2.3 in April, 2.3 in March and 3.2 in February. Taking a looking even further back at the Marshall County unemployment rates, in 2018 our rate was 3.5; 2017 it was 3.6; 2016 the rate was 3.8 and 2015 it was 3.7.
Taking a looking at the counties surrounding Marshall you will find Starke County 4th on the list of counties with a rate of 3.6. LaPorte County is 16th with a rate of 3.2. Elkhart County is sitting 43rd on the list with a rate of 2.7, the same as Marshall County. Fulton County is 58th with a rate of 2.5 along with Pulaski who is 63rd with that same rate of 2.5. Rounding out the list of local counties is Kosciusko who is 77th on the listing of counties with a rate 2.3.
Indiana’s labor force had a net decrease of 2,722 over the previous month. This was a result of a decrease of 2,934 unemployed residents and an increase of 212 employed residents. Indiana’s total labor force, which includes both Hoosiers employed and those seeking employment, stands at 3.38 million, and the state’s 64.5 percent labor force participation rate remains above the national rate of 63.2 percent.
Additionally, this month had the lowest unemployment insurance claims in the reference week (12th of the month) in 2019.
