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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana’s unemployment rate held steady at 3.5 percent in January as the state’s labor force continued to grow.
The Indiana Department of Workforce Development released its latest unemployment report Monday.
Indiana’s labor force—which is composed of both employed and unemployed-but-willing-to-work residents—increased by 7,613 workers from December to January, to almost 3.4 million.
Indiana’s labor-force participation rate—the percentage of the state’s population that is either employed or actively seeking work—stayed at 65.1 percent in January. It remains ahead of the national rate of 63.2 percent.
The national unemployment rate for December was 3.9 percent. With the exception of one month when it was equal (October 2014), Indiana's unemployment rate has been below the U.S. rate for more than five years.
Private sector employment in Indiana grew by 7,200 in January over the previous month and is up more than 43,200 over the last year, the state said.
January job gains were seen in the sectors of Private Educational and Health Services (3,100) and Trade, Transportation and Utilities (3,000). Job losses were seen in Professional and Business Services (-1,700).
Total private employment reached a preliminary record high point of 2,739,300, which is 42,700 above the official December 2018 peak.
The unemployment rate in Indiana for January was lower than the rates in neighboring states Michigan (4 percent), Illinois (4.3 percent), Ohio (4.7 percent) and Kentucky (4.2 percent).
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