Bowdeya Tweh, Times of Northwest Indiana
bowdeya.tweh@nwi.com
Jobless rates in Indiana and Illinois appear to be heading in opposite directions, according to data the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Wednesday.
Preliminary and seasonally adjusted data show Indiana's jobless rate stood at 9.6 percent in September, down 0.3 percent from August, bringing the state below the national unemployment rate of 9.8 percent. The Illinois unemployment rate was 10.5 percent in September, up 0.5 percent from a month earlier.
In September 2008, the jobless rate in Indiana was 6.1 percent and in Illinois it was 6.7 percent. Michigan's unemployment rate was highest in the nation last month at 15.3 percent.
"Indiana is bucking the national trend with three straight months of declining unemployment," Teresa Voors, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, said. "We are encouraged by increases in manufacturing and professional and business service jobs. It's still too early to say we have turned the corner, but Indiana's economy is definitely trending in the right direction."
Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., had month-over-month unemployment rate increases in September. While nonfarm payroll employment dropped in most states in September, Indiana showed the largest month-over-month increase in employment adding 4,400 jobs for a total payroll of more than 2.8 million employees. Voors said September was the first time there were back-to-back monthly employment gains in the state since October and November 2007.
The state's manufacturing sector added 3,000 positions from August and professional and business service sectors added 2,900 jobs. About 3,300 construction positions were lost in September, possibly signaling a premature end to the seasonal construction season, Voors said. Construction
Illinois had more than 5.6 million payroll employees in September, but the state has shed the fourth-highest amount of jobs from payrolls between September 2008 and September 2009.
Unemployment rates in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties and the three largest cities in each county fell in September compared to a month earlier. Lake County's non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at 9.4 percent last month, down nearly 1 percent from the revised August tally. Jobless rates in Gary, Michigan City and Portage stood at 11.2 percent, 11 percent, and 9.5 percent respectively.
Elkhart County had the highest unemployment among Indiana counties at 15 percent in September.