Unemployment 14.3 percent in May

The local unemployment rate dropped by more than a quarter in May. It was still higher than at any point during the Great Recession.

In the early stages of stay-at-home restrictions being lifted last month, Jay County recorded an unemployment rate of 14.3 percent according to estimates Indiana Department of Workforce Development released today.

The rate is down significantly from April, when the county and state saw the most severe impact of shutdowns related to the coronavirus pandemic. That mark was 20.2 percent.

Still, it remains higher than Jay County experienced at any point during The Great Recession, when its rate topped out at 13 percent in early 2010.

And it is more than 11 percentage points higher than in February, when the county came in with the 36th-lowest rate in the state at 3.2 percent. (The local rate was measured at 3.3 percent in March, but the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey that is used to determine the rates came early in the month before the pandemic took its toll.)

Jay County’s unemployment rate ranked 17th-highest among the state’s 92 counties last month. Only Blackford County — 16.1 percent — was worse in the area. Adams County, which saw its rate skyrocket by 17.6 percentage points to 20.7 in April, bounced all the way back to 9.8 percent in May.

The local rate was also well above the Indiana average of 11.9 percent and the U.S. rate of 13 percent.

Unemployment had been on a consistent downward trend following the peak of the Great Recession, with Jay County’s rate staying at 3 percent or lower every month from May 2019 through December 2019.

Howard County (Kokomo) again posted the highest rate in the state at 21.8 percent. it was highest in April at 34.1 percent.

Fayette County had the next-highest rate in May at 18.6 percent followed by Orange (18.5) and Scott (18.1).

Daviess County had the lowest rate in Indiana for the second month in a row at 5.6 percent. Dubois (5.7) and Martin (5.9) counties were the only others to come in below 6 percent.

Area rates are as follows:

Adams County: 9.8 percent, down 10.9 percentage points, t-21st lowest.

Blackford County: 16.1 percent, down 6.4 percentage points, ninth highest.

Delaware County: 11.5 percent, down 5 percentage points, t-44th highest.

Jay County: 14.3 percent, down 5.9 percentage points, 17th highest.

Randolph County: 11 percent, down 6.8 percentage points, t-36th lowest.

Wells County: 10.4 percent, down 6.2 percentage points, t-31st lowest.