Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana’s unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent in July, reaching its highest level since March, the state’s Department of Workforce Development said Friday morning.
Indiana saw total employment fall again—by 10,100 from June to July after a decline of 5,900 from May to June. The number of unemployed Hoosiers climbed to 269,816 in July, from a revised 267,071in June.
The only sector adding a significant amount of jobs was manufacturing.
Employment in trade, transportation and utilities; construction; and private education and health care showed the largest declines.
Meanwhile, the nation’s unemployment rate dipped one-tenth of a percentage point in July, to 9.1 percent.
“In comparison to our neighbors, Indiana is the only state below 9 percent,” Indiana DWD Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a prepared statement. “In terms of jobs, the bright spot for the month was an increase in manufacturing, but we saw a tightening across other sectors.”
Ohio’s unemployment rate is 9 percent, Illinois and Kentucky are both at 9.5 percent, and Michigan’s is 10.9 percent.
Indiana’s unemployment rate is up from 8.3 percent in June. The rate had been at 8.2 percent the previous two months.
In the Indianapolis metropolitan area, the non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate held steady at 8 percent in July, the same as in June, but down significantly from 9.1 percent in July 2010. Comparisons of metro areas are more accurately made using the same months in prior years because the government does not adjust the figures for factory furloughs and other seasonal fluctuations.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.