Lake County fell to the fifth highest unemployment rate statewide after long having the Hoosier State’s highest jobless rate, even as unemployment rose across most of Northwest Indiana in July, again reaching double digits in Gary and East Chicago.
East Chicago recorded a jobless rate of 10% and Gary 10.2% in July.
Lake County ranked fifth in joblessness statewide, with Starke County 17th, LaPorte County 20th and Porter County 28th, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
Last month, the jobless rate rose in May to 6.1% across the Gary metropolitan area, which encompasses Lake, Porter, Newton and Jasper counties, according to the state. That’s up from 5.5% in June and up from 4.9% in July 2023.
In July, Lake County had the Hoosier State’s fifth highest jobless rate at 6.6%, up from 5.9% the previous month and up from 5.4% in July 2023. The similarly blue-collar, manufacturing-heavy Howard County, the home of Kokomo and auto factories, claimed first place statewide with 7% unemployment. Fayette County, Huntington County and Blackbird County came in second, third and fourth statewide, respectively.
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LaPorte County ranked 20th highest of Indiana’s 92 counties at 5.4% unemployment in July, which was up from 5% in June and up from 4% at the same time a year ago, according to the Department of Workforce Development.
Porter County’s unemployment rate rose to 5.1% in July, up from 4.6% in June and up from 3.9% at the same point a year earlier.
Overall, Indiana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate ticked up to 3.7% in July, up from 3.6% the previous month and up from 3.2% at the same time the previous year.
The nation’s unemployment rate was 4% in July, up from 3.8% the previous month and up from 3.4% at the same point a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Unemployment climbed as high as 12% in Northwest Indiana during the depths of the Great Recession in the late 2000s, but it had been significantly higher in Northwest Indiana during the pandemic following stay-at-home orders meant to stop the spread of a virus. More than one out of 10 Region residents on average were out of work for months.
In July, joblessness rose in every Northwest Indiana community where it’s tracked.
In the Calumet Region, Gary has the highest unemployment rate at 10.2%, followed by East Chicago at 10%, Merrillville at 7.3% and Hammond at 7.2%. Unemployment rose by 1.7 percentage points in East Chicago and 1.2 percentage points in Gary last month.
In Northwest Indiana, Schererville has the lowest unemployment rate of 4.6%, followed by Valparaiso at 5.1% and Crown Point at 5.4%.
