Indiana’s unemployment rate continues to drop to 3.3 percent for August and remains lower than the national rate of 3.7 percent. The last time Indiana’s unemployment rate was at 3.3 percent was February 2018. 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 August 2019 unemployment rate was 3.0 ranking our county 55th of the 92 counties in Indiana. This is an improvement from the July rate of 3.4. Looking back, Marshall County had a rate 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 3.5.
Taking a looking at the counties surrounding Marshall you will find Starke County 6th on the list of Indiana Counties with a rate of 4.0 an improvement from the August rate of 4.4.
LaPorte County is 8th on the list of counties with a rate of 3.9 a significant improvement from their 4.3 rate in August.
Saint Joseph County has a September rate of 3.6 and ranked 20th on the list of counties. This is better than their August rate of 4.0.
Elkhart County is now sitting 51st on the list of counties with a rate of 3.0, while last month there were 35th with a rate of 3.6.
Kosciusko County sets 75th on the list of counties with a rate of 2.7 an improvement from their August rate of 3.2.
Fulton County has an unemployment rate of 2.9 and ranked 61st while last month their rate was 3.0 and they were ranked them 73.
Indiana’s labor force had a net decrease of 2,135 over the previous month. This was a result of a decrease of 4,260 unemployed residents and an increase of 2,125 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 64.6 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.
