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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 in October at 3.2%, well under the national rate of 3.6%.
The Indiana Department of Workforce Development said Tuesday that the state’s unemployment rate had declined 0.3 percentage points from 3.5% in October 2018. Over the same period, the national unemployment rate had descended 0.2 percentage points from 3.8%.
Indiana’s labor force—which is composed of both employed and unemployed-but-willing-to-work residents—eked up 567 workers from September to October, essentially remaining at 3.38 million.
Indiana’s labor-force participation rate—the percentage of the state’s population that is either employed or actively seeking work—was 64.4%, ahead of the national rate of 63.3%.
Private sector employment in Indiana slipped by 2,000 in October over the previous month but is up more than 16,500 over the year, the state said. Total private employment is 2,734,500.
Job losses in August were seen in the sectors of Manufacturing (-4,000) and Trade, Transportation and Utilities (-2,100). Gains occurred in Leisure and Hospitality (2,100) and Professional and Business Services (1,500).
The unemployment rate in Indiana for October was lower than the rates in neighboring states Michigan (4.1%), Illinois (3.9%), Ohio (4.2%) and Kentucky (4.3%).
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A low unemployment rate is great, right? Sure, unless one reason is a low birth rate or low in-migration. Indiana needs more babies. We need a full court press of patriotic appeals to young adults, to have children. We need to look at tax incentives, child care, parks, schools, and whatever else is needed to have more people living in our state.