By DAVE SCHULTZ
Coming out the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009, Wells County’s unemployment rate was in double digits — 10.2 percent in March of 2010, for example.
Numbers released by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development Monday shows Wells County’s preliminary unemployment rate for July of 2022 at 2.5 percent. Only one Indiana county — Boone, one of the “collar counties” around Indianapolis — has a lower jobless rate that Wells, at 2.4 percent. Wells is one of four counties at 2.5 percent, joining Dubois, Ohio, and Steuben.
Economists have generally considered a 5 percent unemployment rate as being functional full employment. Under that scenario, 82 of Indiana’s 92 counties are in full employment.
It’s certainly a different employment landscape from what it was a dozen years ago.
Analysts note that the counties of Indiana’s Growth Region 3 — basically, northeast Indiana — “have more people working than they did a year ago. The area has also seen an uptick in unemployed workers for most of those counties,” a news release from the Community Research Institute of Purdue Fort Wayne and Northeast Indiana Works said.
“Today’s labor market data for July from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development show all counties in Economic Growth Region 3 – Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Grant, Huntington, Noble, Steuben, Wabash, Wells and Whitley – to have more people employed than this time a year ago,” the commentary said. “Noble and Wabash counties had fractional growth at 20 and 22 employed workers respectively. In comparison, Allen County has almost 5,900 more residents working, marking a 3.3 percent increase from July 2021 to last month.”
The statement noted that all of northeast Indiana’s counties had unemployment rates under 5 percent in July.
Only Grant County had unemployment above the state’s not seasonally adjusted 3.5 percent unemployment rate. Statewide, three counties had unemployment rates above 5 percent — Howard, Lake and Fayette.
“The increase in unemployed workers, especially in rural counties, may be a relief to companies looking to hire,” said Rick Farrant, director of communications for Northeast Indiana Works. “The challenge for employers remains offering robust wage and benefits packages to be competitive against other employers looking for workers to fill open positions. The new labor data, at least for time being, in no way suggests a weakening of a very strong job market.”
Among area counties, behind Steuben and Wells in low unemployment rates for July were Adams at 2.6 percent, LaGrange and Whitley at 2.7 percent, DeKalb at 2.9, Huntington and Jay at 3.0, Wabash at 3.2, Allen at 3.3, Noble at 3.4, and Blackford and Grant at 3.7.
daves@news-banner.com
