By Miles Flynn | Southern Indiana Business Report
INDIANAPOLIS — April Jobless rates in the eight counties of the region were down from March and down from one year ago, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s April employment report.
The monthly unemployment rate is a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicator that reflects the number of unemployed people seeking employment within the prior four weeks as a percentage of the labor force. The labor force includes residents employed and those seeking employment. In addition to the lower unemployment rates seen locally in the April report, labor force participation is now back above April 2020 levels in seven of those counties.
Crawford County
Crawford County’s April unemployment rate was 4.1%, which ranked 27th highest among Indiana’s 92 counties. The rate is down 0.7 percentage points from the March preliminary figure and down 12.3 points from April 2020 — the height of the pandemic shutdown. Crawford County’s unemployment stood at 16.4% for April 2020 and remained in double digits for three months.
In a labor force of 4,770 people for April, 196 residents were unemployed. The labor force is down 33 people from March and up 306 residents from April 2020.
Daviess County
Daviess County’s unemployment rate for April once again came in as one of the lowest in the state. The April rate, 2.5%, ranked 89th highest in Indiana. The April rate is down 0.5 percentage points from March and down 5.9 percentage points from April 2020. Daviess County’s jobless rate for April 2020 was 8.4%.
With a labor force of 16,565 people, Daviess County had 420 unemployed residents for April. The labor force is up 125 people from March and up 1,924 residents from April 2020.
Dubois County
Dubois County’s jobless rate for April was 2.8%, which ranks 84th highest out of Indiana’s 92 counties. The April rate is down 0.6 percentage points from March and down 7.8 percentage points from April 2020. Dubois County’s unemployment rate stood at 10.6% for April 2020.
Out of 23,184 people in the county’s labor force for April, 649 were unemployed. The labor force is up 1,033 people from March and up 2,561 people from April 2020.
Greene County
The April unemployment rate for Greene County was 4.2%, which ranked 23rd out of Indiana’s 92 counties. The April rate is down 0.7 percentage points from March and down 8.6 percentage points from April 2020. Greene County’s jobless rate for April 2020 was 12.8%.
Of a labor force of 13,347 residents for April, 559 people were unemployed. The labor force is up 190 residents from March and up 907 residents from April 2020.
Lawrence County
Lawrence County’s April jobless rate came in at 4%, ranking 30th highest among Hoosier counties. The April rate is down 0.7 percentage points from March and down 13.6 percentage points from April 2020. Lawrence County’s jobless rate for April 2020 was 17.6% and didn’t drop back into single digits until the report for July.
Out of a labor force of 20,873 residents for April, 828 of those people were unemployed. The labor force is up 512 people from March and up 387 people from April 2020.
Martin County
Martin County saw an April unemployment rate of 2.9%, which ranked 79th highest in Indiana. The April rate is down 0.4 percentage points from March and down 5.9 percentage points from April 2020. Martin County’s jobless rate for April 2020 was 8.8%.
Out of 5,282 people in the labor force for April, there were 155 unemployed residents. The labor force is down 103 residents from March and up 576 from April 2020.
Orange County
With a heavy dependence on tourism, Orange County again registered one of the higher unemployment rates in the state for April. The figure came in at 4.8%, ranking 11th highest in Indiana. The April rate is down 0.9 percentage points from March and down 21 percentage points from April 2020. Orange County’s jobless rate for April 2020 was a staggering 25.8% and remained in double digits for four months.
With a labor force of 8,622 people for April, Orange County had 411 unemployed residents. The labor force is up 275 people from March and down 619 people from April 2020.
Washington County
Washington County’s April unemployment rate was 3.8%, which ranked as 37th highest in the state. The April rate is down 0.7 percentage points from March and down 15.3 percentage points from April 2020. Washington County’s jobless rate for April 2020 was 19.1% and remained in double digits for three months.
Out of a labor force of 13,213 residents for April, 496 of those people were unemployed. The labor force is up 19 people from March and up 484 residents from April 2020.
State and nation
Indiana’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April was 4.2%, and the national rate was 5.7%. Seasonally adjusted rates were 3.9% and 6.1%, respectively. (Seasonally adjusted numbers are not available below the state level.)
Continuing with non-seasonally adjusted numbers, the state’s April rate is down 0.5 percentage points from what was reported for March and down 12.9 percentage points from April 2020. Indiana saw a jobless rate of 17.1% for April 2020, and the rate didn’t slip back down into single digits until the report for July.
The United States’ April rate is down 0.5 percentage points from March and down 8.7 percentage points from April 2020. The rate was at 14.4% for April 2020 and remained in double digits for four months.
Out of Indiana’s April labor force of 3,327,059 residents, 139,684 of those people were unemployed. Indiana’s labor force had a net increase of 145 from the previous month. This change was a result of an increase of 955 unemployed residents and a decrease of 810 employed residents. The state’s 63.1% labor force participation rate remains above the national rate of 61.7%.
Nationally, out of a labor force of 160,379,000 residents for April, 9,220,000 of them were unemployed. The country’s labor force is down 18,000 people from March and up 4,549,000 people from April 2020.
State employment by sector
Private sector employment has decreased by 600 people over the previous month and increased by 362,400 people over the year. The monthly decrease is primarily due to losses in the Construction (-2,300) and the Leisure and Hospitality (-800) sectors. Losses were offset by gains in the Manufacturing (1,300) and the Private Educational and Health Services (1,300) sectors. Total private employment stands at 2,622,300, which is 118,200 below the December 2019 peak.