Go west (to Hendricks County)

If you’re looking for action in the local economy, Hendricks County is as good a good place as any to start. It’s
the only county in the Indianapolis area where the number of jobs is growing, and the growth is spread fairly evenly across
the various sectors of the economy.

“Action,” of course, is relative when times are crummy. Hendricks
County can’t be described as a hot bed.

Yet, consider this: Hendricks hasn’t seen so much as a losing
month since the state economy went into recession in December 2007. Jobs increased every month compared to the same month
in the prior year.

Business creation is reasonably strong, too.

Being just across the Marion County
line from Indianapolis International Airport, you’d expect Hendricks to do well in trucking and warehousing, and it
is. But Hendricks employers ranging from real estate brokerages to retailing to health care to schools are hiring.

By way of caution, the data is old—the latest available from the government is from June. But it still shows a trend.
Other counties are probably turning around by now, but we won’t know for sure until the numbers are released in a few
more months.

Are you surprised Hendricks is doing better than the two wealthiest counties, Boone and Hamilton?