Unemployment Rates Up from December, Down from Last Year

Posted on March 14, 2018
Author Michael Gallenberger, WKVI

Unemployment rates are starting to head back up from their low point in December, but they’re still lower than the same period last year. Starke County saw 5.1-percent unemployment in January, according to the latest report from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, down from 6.3 percent the year before. But it’s a full percentage point higher than the county’s December unemployment rate.

Pulaski County’s rate remains lower. Its January unemployment rate was 3.7 percent, down from 5.1 percent during the same period last year but up from three percent in December. The actual number of Starke County residents working has dropped by over 100 since January of 2017. Pulaski County, on the other hand, has about 10 more residents employed. Both counties continue to experience a shrinking labor force.

Starke and LaPorte counties are tied for the highest unemployment rate in the local area at 5.1 percent, while Marshall County’s is one of the lowest, at 3.3 percent. Indiana as a whole reported 3.6-percent unemployment in January. The national rate was 4.5 percent.