Unemployment Stays Flat in December
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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 remained unchanged in December at 3.6 percent. The Indiana Department of Workforce Development says, however, private sector employment hit a new preliminary record high for the third consecutive month.
The state’s unemployment rate remains lower than the national rate, which rose to 3.9 percent last month. According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Indiana’s labor force participation rate remained flat at 65.1 percent, which is still higher than the national rate of 63.1 percent.
Indiana added 12,200 private sector jobs last month. The preliminary December 2018 employment peak of 2,731,600 jobs is nearly 43,000 more than the official record high set one year earlier. The DWD says the new record is subject to monthly revisions and annual benchmarking before being made official.
The majority of the gains in private sector employment came from the private educational and health services, construction, and leisure and hospitality sectors.
Of the surrounding states, Indiana is the only one to have an unemployment rate below 4 percent. Only Minnesota and Wisconsin have lower unemployment rates in the Midwest at 2.8 and 3.0, respectively.
You can connect to more about Indiana’s unemployment rate from the Department of Workforce Development by clicking here.