Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly
Three northeast Indiana counties once again had the highest nonseasonally adjusted unemployment rates in the state, but the rates appear to be decreasing.
Elkhart County had the highest preliminary nonseasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August, 16 percent, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. That was down from the revised July rate of 16.8 percent. The county had a 9.1-percent unemployment rate in August 2008.
Noble County had the second-highest preliminary unemployment rate for August, 15.7 percent, which also was an improvement from July's rate of 16.6 percent. The county reported an 8.4-percent unemployment rate in August 2008.
LaGrange County, 14.9 percent, had the third-highest August unemployment rate. Adams County, 14.1 percent, had the sixth highest. Steuben County, 13.6 percent, had the eighth highest. And DeKalb County, 13.2 percent, had the ninth-highest rate, according to the Department of Workforce Development.
Allen County's preliminary nonseasonally adjusted August unemployment rate was 10 percent, down from 10.4 percent in July. Last year, the rate was 6.2 percent.
The preliminary seasonally adjusted statewide unemployment rate decreased 0.7 percent from July to August, to 9.9 percent. But Teresa Voors, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, said in a written statement that surveys returned conflicting information.
"Decreases in unemployment are always welcome news," Voors said in the statement. "We hope it's a trend, but data from two key factors used to determine employment levels - surveys of individual households and business payroll - appear to contradict each other."
The state's monthly survey of individual households found 24,000 fewer unemployed residents, according to the statement. But a survey of business payrolls indicated 21,000 fewer jobs. Decreases in both surveys are not expected.
The city of Elkhart saw its preliminary nonseasonally adjusted unemployment rate decrease slightly from July to August, to 18.8 percent. Goshen saw a 1.6-percent decrease, to 15.1 percent, during the same period.
The city of Fort Wayne's unemployment rate was 10.5 percent in August, down from 11 percent in July.
Preliminary nonseasonally adjusted August unemployment rates for other northeast Indiana counties were: Wabash, 12.8 percent; Whitley, 12.3 percent; Huntington, 11.8 percent; Kosciusko, 11.6 percent; and Wells, 9.5 percent.