State jobless rate holds steady at 10 percent

The state’s unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent in May, according to figures released Friday morning by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

Before April, Indiana’s revised seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate had teetered between 9.7 percent and 9.9 percent in the previous six months, after topping 10 percent from March through September of last year.

Yet, the number of jobs in Indiana rose by 6,300 in May, marking a 2.1-percent gain since December, the state said.

“It is welcome news that private-sector employment grew in Indiana for the fifth consecutive month,” DWD Commissioner Mark W. Everson said in a prepared statement. “Since the start of the year, one in 10 of all jobs created across the country were in Indiana. While unemployment is still too high, we are seeing a sharp drop in new unemployment claims.”

Despite hitting 10 percent in unemployment, Indiana still has the lowest jobless rate among its neighboring states. Indiana’s unemployment rate in May 2009 was 10.6 percent.

Michigan’s 13.6-percent unemployment rate was tops in the Midwest in May, followed by Illinois at 10.8 percent, Ohio at 10.7 percent and Kentucky at 10.4 percent.

Indiana, however, was the only Midwestern state that did not post a decline in its May unemployment rate.

The national unemployment rate is 9.7 percent.

The DWD said there were more people working in several employment sectors statewide in March, including professional and business services, private education and health services, and manufacturing. Sectors reporting job declines included trade, transportation and utilities, construction and financial activities.
 
The number of unemployed Hoosiers declined, to 306,487, in May from a revised 308,694 in April.

In the Indianapolis metro area, the non-seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 8.9 percent in May, up from 8.6 percent in May 2009.

Comparisons of metro areas are most accurately made using the same months in prior years, because the government does not adjust the figures for factory furloughs and other seasonal fluctuations.