WASHINGTON: Unemployment increased sharply across most of Northwest Indiana in August. The seasonally unadjusted jobless rate in the Gary metro area — which includes Lake, Porter, Newton and Jasper counties — shot up to 6.1 percent in August, up from 5.8 percent in July, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
Unemployment in the Michigan City metro area, which is just LaPorte County, rose to 6 percent in August, up from 5.6 percent in July. Last month, Lake County had the second highest jobless rate in the state at 6.5 percent, while LaPorte had the 6th highest at 6 percent. Porter is 15th highest out of Indiana’s 92 counties, at 5.3 percent. The jobless rate in the Gary metro area is up 0.1 percent as compared to a year ago. It has risen by 0.3 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 4.5 percent. The unemployment rate in June in neighboring Illinois was 5.5 percent. An estimated 328,525 people were employed in the Gary metro in August, or about 6,500 more than in July, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. However, the unemployment rate rose because more people began actively looking for work.
The estimated number of employed workers in the Michigan City metro fell by about 840 to 46,105. In August, unemployment rose in every major city and town that the Indiana Department of Workforce Development tracks in Northwest Indiana. The highest increase—0.7 percent—was in Hobart. Gary, Merrillville and Portage also saw increases of 0.6 percent.
