Indiana’s unemployment rate improved last month for the first time in a year and a half.
The Indiana unemployment rate improved by 0.1 percentage points to 3.5% in June. That’s the first time it’s gone down since December 2017.
Employment levels in the state’s private sector also rebounded in June – 6,800 jobs were added, led by a surge in the private educational and health services sector.
Yet there is a troubling sign in the data. The labor force is a measure that counts both people with a job and those actively looking for one. So, growth in the labor force is viewed as a sign of optimism in the economy.
But Indiana’s labor force got worse in June, for the second straight month. It had been on 27-month streak of growth before that.
