By Cynthia Fugate, Times staff reporter
Despite high unemployment rates across the country, Clinton County seems to be relatively low. The latest county unemployment rate for Clinton County shows the unemployment rate at 5.2 percent, which is lower than Indiana's rate of 6.4 percent and lower than the national rate of 6.1 percent.
The rates of bordering counties were: Boone, 4.4 percent; Carroll, 6.6 percent; Hamilton, 4.2 percent; Howard, 8.5 percent, Tippecanoe, 4.9 percent; and Tipton, 8 percent.
Clinton County Chamber of Commerce Director Gina Sheets said she believes the county's low unemployment rate is due to the size of the industrial park.
"I think that in our industrial park we have seen some industries hiring in the last 60 days," she said. "Not a lot, but there have been some employment opportunities."
Sheets said there are 23 industries in the park. According to Indiana Department of Workforce Development (IDWD) 2007 statistics, which are the most recent numbers available, major employers for Clinton County include Frito-Lay, Federal-Mogul Corp., Zachary Confections, Inc., Donaldson Company, Emerson Appliance Controls, Wal-Mart Supercenter, Wesley Manor Retirement Community and St. Vincent Frankfort Hospital.
Sheets added that Frankfort Community Schools, Clinton County government and Lake Erie Special Fasteners should be included as major employers.
The Web site www.stats.indiana.edu, comprised of information gathered by the IDWD and IUPUI Center for Urban Policy and the Environment, showed Clinton County ranked 48th out of the state's 92 counties in labor force with 16,837 workers in 2007. The Total number of employers was 4,423. Manufacturing was the largest of the major sectors and had an average wage per job of $41,970.
A 2007 industry overview showed that manufacturing made up 36.7 percent of the total work- force in Clinton County. Additionally, transportation and warehousing was 3.7 percent; health care and social assistance was 10.9 percent; and finance and insurance was 2.1 percent, according to IDWD.
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