Jay rate is 4.4

After sitting near the 5 percent mark for four months, the unemployment rate in Jay County took a significant drop in August.
Jay County’s rate dipped to 4.4 percent last month according to estimates Indiana Department of Workforce Development released Monday. It had hovered just under 5 percent from April through July after climbing to 5.7 percent in February.
Each of the counties adjacent to Jay saw decreases of 0.3 percentage points or more, mirroring a trend throughout the state. Indiana’s rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 4.4 percent, which is 0.8 percentage points below the national average.
“Indiana’s unemployment rate continues to decline in conjunction with large consistent increases in the Hoosier labor force, creating a true decrease in unemployment,” said IDWD commissioner Steven J. Braun in a press release. “This is a positive economic trend that stands in stark contrast to our neighboring states, which have experienced decreases in their respective unemployment rates due in part to stagnant or declining labor forces.”
Jay County’s rate fell by half a percentage point, matching Adams County for the biggest drop in the area. Despite that drop, it remained higher than more than half the counties in Indiana for the fifth consecutive month as it tied for 39th highest in the state.
Until April, it had been ranked in the lower half of unemployment rates in the state for several years, reaching 23rd-lowest as recently as April 2014.
Adams County returned to Indiana’s top 10, posting the sixth-lowest unemployment rate out of 92 counties at 3.5 percent. It had been at 4 percent in July.
Blackford County continued to struggle as it had the 10th highest unemployment rate in the state at 5.5 percent.
Dubois County recorded the lowest unemployment rate in Indiana for the fifth straight month, again coming in 0.1 percentage points better than Hamilton County at 3 percent.
Vermillion County, which hit 6.6 percent, had the highest rate in the state for the sixth month in a row.
Area unemployment rates are as follows:
Adams County: 3.5 percent, down 0.5 percentage points, t-sixth lowest.
Blackford County: 5.5 percent, down 0.4 percentage points, t-10th highest.
Delaware County: 5.4 percent, down 0.4 percentage points, t-12th highest.
Jay County: 4.4 percent, down 0.5 percentage points, t-39th highest.
Randolph County: 4.5 percent, down 0.3 percentage points, t-36th highest.
Wells County: 3.6 percent, down 0.3 percentage points, t-11th lowest.