Unemployment lowest since Oct.

Just two months after hitting its highest number of 2013, the unemployment rate has dipped to its lowest mark in nearly a year.
Unemployment in Jay County dropped to 6.9 percent in August according to labor force estimates released Friday by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
The rate was the lowest the county has seen since October of 2012, when it was at 6.7 percent.
August marked the second consecutive month in which Jay County saw unemployment drop by at least 0.5 percentage points. The rate was 8.1 percent in June and fell to 7.6 percent in July before dropping again last month.
The unemployment rate of 6.9 percent ranked Jay County 36th in the state overall and third in the six-county region. Wells and Adams counties both had unemployment rates of 6.3 percent.
Jay County’s improvement in August mirrored that of the state as a whole.
Indiana saw its rate fall to 7.5 percent from 8.3 percent in July. That is the lowest of 2013 by more than half a percentage point and is the lowest in the state since it was 6.9 percent in November of 2008.
The national average for August was 7.3 percent.
While Jay, Adams and Wells counties continue to perform better than the state average in jobless rates, Blackford, Delaware and Randolph continue to struggle. At 9.2 percent, Blackford County was tied with Miami County and neighboring Grant County for seventh-worst in the state in August.
Individual area unemployment rates are as follows:
Adams County: 6.3 percent, down 1.1 percentage points, t-16th lowest.
Blackford: 9.2 percent, down 0.5 percentage points, t-seventh highest.
Delaware: 8.6 percent, down 1.7 percentage points, t-16th highest.
Jay: 6.9 percent, down 0.7 percentage points, t-36th lowest.
Randolph: 8.3 percent, down 1.0 percentage points, t-22nd highest.
Wells: 6.3 percent, down 1.5 percentage points, t-16th lowest.

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