Elkhart-Goshen sees highest April 2009 unemployment increase in nation

Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly

The Elkhart-Goshen area had the largest increase in unemployment in the country between April 2008 and April 2009.

Unemployment jumped from 5.1 percent in April last year to 17.8 percent in April this year, according to nonseasonally adjusted data released Wednesday by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The April 2009 rate was lower in Elkhart-Goshen than the March 2009 rate of 18.9 percent.

Fort Wayne's unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in April, up from 5 percent during the same month last year. The April rate this year also was better than the March rate, which was 11.1 percent.

The bureau said unemployment rates were higher in April from the same month last year in all 372 metropolitan areas it studies. Thirteen areas reported rates that were 15 percent or higher, and 31 areas had rates of less than 5 percent.

Six of the 13 metropolitan areas in Indiana listed in the data reported April unemployment rates of 10 percent or more. The highest unemployment rate during the same month a year ago was 6.9 percent in Kokomo.