Cass County's jobless figures drop for February 2009

john.dempsey@pharostribune.com

Cass County got a bit of good news Friday, learning its employment figures improved in the month of February.

Numbers released by the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business showed increases in the size of the work force and number of people employed as well as corresponding reductions in the number of unemployed and the unemployment percentage.

The number of people in Cass County's labor force grew to 18,754 in February, up 268 over January or 1.4 percent. The number of people employed rose by 2.2 percent (351) to 16,512.

Unemployment fell 0.6 percent to 12 and the number of unemployed fell by 83 to 2,242.

"The one thing I always watch is in the numbers in the work force, employed and unemployed," said Skip Kuker, president of the Logansport Economic Development Foundation, "and where we rank among the 92 counties. The labor force has grown thus the number of employed has grown a bit more too."

He noted February is typically a bad month for Cass County for unemployment figures.

"In the five years I've been doing this job, people take holiday employment and then come out of the work force in February. Even though it's just 0.6 of a percent, it's good to see it go down," he said.

What pleased Kuker the most was the county's ranking statewide in each category.

"We're 41st in labor force and number employed and 39th in unemployed. Those numbers develop the standpoint I watch," he said. "Say we're 41st in work force and employed, but we start falling toward 16th in unemployed. That's a bad place to be because it means there is a high level of unemployment.

"I want to see the numbers bracketed as much as possible and I want to see it as tight as possible. That's a good bracket."

The numbers also improved for Howard, Miami and Carroll counties.

Howard's unemployment percentage fell nearly 6 points, from 18.5 to 12.8 percent. While it is impossible to tell what caused the decrease, it may have been related to Chrysler reopening all of its Kokomo plants.

Layoffs in Kokomo's factories will affect Cass County, he noted.

"We send 2,300 people a day into Howard County from Cass to go to work. I use the rule of thirds: 700 to Chrysler, 700 to Delphi and 700 everyplace else," Kuker explained. "If 700 people go on temporary furlough, that's a lot of people in the overall number that can effect and skew the numbers temporarily."

Miami dropped 1.4 percent to 14.2 and Carroll fell to 9.9 percent from 10.1.

The unemployment rate grew to 12.7 in Fulton County, up by 0.4 percent, and White County's numbers went from 11 to 11.7 percent.

"The regional average is 12.4 percent and we're a little bit better than the regional average," Kuker said.

Indiana's unemployment rate grew slightly in February to 9.4 percent, keeping the state's jobless rate at the highest level since the recession of the early 1980s.

February's jobless report shows 324,000 Indiana residents looking for work - about 4,000 more than in January. That pushed the state's jobless rate up slightly from January's 9.3 percent.

Indiana's preliminary, seasonally adjusted 9.4 percent jobless rate means February's rate was the highest since January 1984, when rate was 9.6 percent and Ronald Reagan was president.

February's numbers suggest that an increase in heavy construction jobs amid the lingering recession is starting to offset continued drops in auto manufacturing, said Teresa Voors, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.