LONDON: Unemployment rose broadly across Northwest Indiana in June. The seasonally unadjusted jobless rate in the Gary metro area — which includes Lake, Porter, Newton and Jasper counties — increased to 6.1 percent in June, up from 5.8 percent in May, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. Unemployment in the Michigan City metro area, which is just LaPorte County, ticked up to 5.9 percent in June, up from 5.8 percent in May.
Last month, Lake County had the third highest jobless rate in the state at 6.4 percent, while LaPorte had the seventh highest at 5.9 percent. Porter is 14th highest out of Indiana’s 92 counties, at 5.4 percent. The jobless rate in the Gary metro area is down 0.1 percent as compared to a year ago. It has risen by 0.2 percent in the Michigan City metropolitan area over the same period.
Joblessness 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 4.9 percent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month, and Indiana had a jobless rate of 4.8 percent.
An estimated 330,498 people were employed in the Gary metro in June, or about 4,000 more than in May, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. The estimated number of employed workers in the Michigan City metro rose by about 800 to 47,168. In June, unemployment rose in every major city and town in Northwest Indiana, except Hobart and Merrillville, where it was unchanged. The biggest jump was in East Chicago, where it rose 0.4 percent to 9.3 percent.
