Ind. jobless rate edges up to 10.7 percent in June
Indiana's unemployment rate rises slightly to 10.7 percent in June from prior month
By Charles Wilson, Associated Press Writer
On Friday July 17, 2009, 4:13 pm EDT
Buzz up! 0 Print
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Indiana's unemployment rate ticked up to 10.7 percent in June, a 0.1 percentage point increase from the previous month but nearly twice the rate from a year ago.
The state Department of Workforce Development said Friday that Indiana reported the smallest unemployment increase among its neighboring states despite continued job losses in the manufacturing sector.
Indiana's rate climbed from 10.6 percent in May and 5.6 percent in June 2008. The last time the state's jobless rate reached 10.7 percent was July 1983.
Howard County again posted the state's highest rate -- 19.7 percent. The Kokomo area had several factories idled during Chrysler's bankruptcy.
Michigan continued to have the nation's highest unemployment rate at 15.2 percent for June. The national rate was 9.5 percent.
"We are starting to see a few encouraging signs despite continued losses in the manufacturing sector," Workforce Development Commissioner Teresa Voors said in a prepared statement. "Indiana added 5,000 service jobs last month and the number of Help Wanted ads has grown for the past two months; new job postings declined nationally in June."
But Indiana House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, saw the news as less encouraging.
"We have reached the point where increases in the unemployment rate are hailed as positive, simply because they didn't go up as much as originally thought or that neighboring states had it worse. 'At least we're not Michigan' is not the most inspiring thing to tell those 345,000 Hoosiers," he said in a prepared statement, referring to the number of out-of-work residents reflected in the June rate.
Nine counties, mostly north of Interstate 70, reported preliminary rates of 15 percent or higher: Howard, Elkart, Noble, Miami, Tipton, LaGrange, Blackford, Starke and Fayette in east central Indiana.
The jobless rate in Howard County jumped nearly seven percentage points from April to May and has increased the last two months. Unemployment in Elkhart County, rocked by layoffs in the recreational vehicle industry, stood at 16.8 percent in June after steadily improving from a high of 18.8 percent in March.
Sixty counties posted rates of 10 percent or higher, an increase from 59 in May.
Unemployment worsened in 56 counties from May to June.
(This version CORRECTS lead to say jobless rate was nearly, not more than, twice that of June 2008.)
AI
