Indiana's unemployment rate inches down to 10.6 percent in July, with 332,000 seeking work
By: DEANNA MARTIN
Associated Press
08/21/09 1:40 PM EDT
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's unemployment rate dropped slightly to 10.6 percent in July, a decline officials said was statistically insignificant.
The state's jobless rate was 10.7 percent in June, and the national unemployment rate decreased in July by the same 0.1 percentage point to 9.4 percent. More than 332,000 Hoosiers were unemployed last month, down slightly from the 345,000 looking for work in June.
Indiana Department of Workforce Development Commissioner Teresa Voors said the latest numbers reflect the auto industry returning from bankruptcy and summer furloughs.
"Large increases in manufacturing employment and employment gains in cities like Kokomo are a direct result of Hoosier auto workers going back to work," she said.
Some think more people will be out of work as the year continues. Carol Rogers, deputy director of the Indiana Business Research Center, predicts the unemployment rate will hit 11 percent or higher before starting to decline.
"We haven't seen the peak of unemployment," she said. "But I think by early next year, we anticipate that it will start going down, perhaps even dramatically by the spring."
The last time Indiana's unemployment rate topped 11 percent was in May 1983, when the jobless rate was 11.3 percent.
Indiana businesses are still cautious about hiring, waiting to see what the economy holds, Rogers said. Most companies are still feeling the effects of the recession, with more people out of work and spending less money, she said.
"The shocks to the economic system over the past year or so have not finished running themselves through all of the industries," Rogers said.
The July numbers show that Elkhart County in northern Indiana, which has been hit hard by the collapse of recreational vehicle manufacturing, had the state's highest jobless rate at 16.7 percent. That's slightly lower than the 16.8 percent unemployment in June. County-level data is not seasonally adjusted as the statewide rate is.
The last time Indiana's statewide monthly unemployment rate dropped was in April, when the rate fell to 9.9 percent from 10 percent in March.
Indiana's neighbors also reported steady unemployment rates from June to July. Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio had jobless rates that increased by 0.1 percentage point. Michigan's jobless rate dropped from 15.2 percent in June to 15 percent in July, marking the first time Michigan's rate has dropped in more than a year.
