Area rates drop

Jay County’s unemployment rate continued its downward trend, but remains higher than more than half the counties in the state.
Adams County, on the other hand, is trending toward No. 1.
Jay County’s unemployment rate came in at 4.1 percent in September according to estimates the Indiana Department of Workforce Development released Wednesday.
Adams County was at 3.1 percent and tied for fourth lowest in Indiana.
Unemployment has traditionally been low in Adams County, but those numbers have gotten even better recently. Its rate dropped to 3.5 in August before falling 0.4 more percentage points last month.
Adams County came in tied for the fourth-lowest rate with Boone and LaGrange counties, trailing only Dubois (2.8), Hamilton (2.9) and Bartholomew (3.0) counties.
“We were quite pleased,” said Larry D. Macklin, executive director of Adams County Economic Development Corporation. “I attribute that to our new businesses that we’ve had with also several business expansions …
“When the economy was down a couple years back, we didn’t lose any businesses. And when they came out they just had a flurry of expansion.”
Among those expansions is a $128.6 million investment at FCC-Adams, which includes $116.7 million in new equipment and a $11.9 million, 140,000-square foot expansion. New investments include a $6.05 million project from Poseidon Barge this year and an up to $3.8 million investment from Indiana Coatings that is projected to create 120 new jobs in Berne by 2018.
Jay County’s unemployment rate dropped for the second month in a row.
It was 6.5 percent in January and hovered around the 5 percent mark from April through July.
It has mirrored Indiana’s rate, which fell to 4 percent in September.
IDWD commissioner Steven J. Braun touted the numbers, noting a growth of 84,000 in the state’s labor force since January 2013.
“In September, Indiana experienced another decrease in unemployment due to strong levels of reemployment and labor force gains,” Braun said in a press release. “Indiana continues its robust economic recovery with consistent growth in private sector jobs, wages and labor force participation that are all above the national average.”
State Democrats noted their feeling that the unemployment numbers paint an incomplete picture.
“Governor Pence is late to the game on addressing many of today’s problems for Hoosiers — our crumbling infrastructure being just one example — but he’s the first to tout an economy using only snapshots that don’t tell the whole story about Indiana’s economic struggles,” said Indiana Democratic Party communications director Drew Anderson in a press release. “Today’s figures once again fit the national trend established by President Obama. But for Indiana, the hardworking middle class know jobs in the state provide wages far lower than what they were in early 2000.”
Unemployment rates were down throughout the six-county region, with Delaware County seeing a drop of 0.8 percentage points. Blackford County remained highest in the region at 5 percent, tied for 10th highest in the state.
Vermillion County had the highest rate — 6.2 percent — in Indiana for the seventh month in a row. Dubois County’s extended its streak holding the lowest mark to six months.
Area unemployment rates are as follows:
Adams County: 3.1 percent, down 0.4 percentage points, t-fourth lowest.
Blackford County: 5.0 percent, down 0.5 percentage points, t-10th highest.
Delaware County: 4.6 percent, down 0.8 percentage points, t-16th highest.
Jay County: 4.1 percent, down 0.3 percentage points, t-35th highest.
Randolph County: 4.0 percent, down 0.5 percentage points, t-39th highest.
Wells County: 3.3 percent, down 0.3 percentage points, t-10th lowest.