Clark, Floyd unemployment lower than most counties for May 2009

By DANIEL SUDDEATH, Evening News
Daniel.Suddeath@newsandtribune.com

Indiana's unemployment rate jumped to its highest mark since 1983 last month.

The state's jobless amount was 10.6 percent in May, up from 9.9 percent in April, according to a U.S. Department of Labor survey released Friday. Indiana has the same unemployment rate as Kentucky and slightly lower than Ohio, which recorded a 10.8 percent figure.

Clark and Floyd counties actually faired relatively well, as they finished 76th and 78th respectively for highest unemployment rate out of 92 Indiana counties.

Clark's rate was 8.7 percent and Floyd's 8.5 percent. The national seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for May is 9.4 percent.

"Previously I had suggested that the wild card for unemployment was the U.S. auto industry," said Uric Dufrene, Sanders chair of the Indiana University Southeast business department.

"And it appears that the auto industry is largely responsible for the increase in employment losses."

Indiana lost 15,200 nonfarm payroll jobs from April to May. The manufacturing sector alone cut 16,100 jobs, as Indiana gained 1,200 jobs for the month outside of manufacturing.

From May 2008 to last month, Indiana lost 156,000 jobs.

Teresa Voors, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, verified that the auto industry caused the majority of new cuts in the manufacturing sector.

She and Dufrene warned last month - when data showed Indiana's unemployment rate to be stagnant - that more job losses were on the way.