LONDON: Unemployment in Northwest Indiana dropped steeply in May, the most recent month for which data is available. The seasonally unadjusted jobless rate in the Gary metro area — which includes Lake, Porter, Newton and Jasper counties — fell to 5.8 percent in May, down from 6.5 percent in April, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. Unemployment in the Michigan City metro area, which is just LaPorte County, plunged to 5.7 percent in May, down from 6.5 percent in April.
The jobless rate in the Gary metro area is down 0.7 percent as compared to a year ago, and it’s sunk by 0.8 percent in the Michigan City metropolitan area over the same period. Unemployment had been as high as 12 percent in Northwest Indiana during the Great Recession.
Both the Gary and Michigan City metropolitan areas trail behind statewide and national unemployment levels. The United States had a 4.7 percent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month, while Indiana had a jobless rate of 5 percent in May. An estimated 327,196 people were employed in the Gary metro in May, or about 4,000 more than in April, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
The estimated number of employed workers in the Michigan City metro rose by about 240 to 46,263. In May, unemployment plunged dramatically in every major city and town in Northwest Indiana as compared to March. East Chicago and Gary had the biggest drops of 1.2 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.
