Indiana’s unemployment rate went down in December, the second consecutive month it’s fallen.
The rate fell to 3.4 percent last month. That represents a drop of half of a percent since October.
Helping that drop in December: the private sector added 6,000 jobs, led by the manufacturing industry.
But the state’s labor force declined for the third consecutive month. The labor force includes people who either have a job or are actively looking for one. And more than 10,000 Hoosiers stopped looking for a job in December.
Contractions in the labor force can be seen as signs of pessimism in the economy.
