Unemployment fell across Northwest Indiana in December, but Lake County went back to leading the state in joblessness after slipping to second behind Howard County for months.
Lake County ranked first in joblessness statewide, LaPorte County sixth and Porter County 12th, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
The jobless rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 3.9% in December across the Gary metropolitan area, which encompasses Lake, Porter, Newton and Jasper counties. The unemployment rate in the Gary metro area was 4.1% the previous month and 2.4% in December 2021.
In December, Lake County had the Hoosier State’s highest jobless rate at 4.4%, down from 4.6% from the previous month and up from 2.8% during December of 2021. Howard County, where the similarly blue-collar manufacturing town of Kokomo is located, took second place in the Hoosier State with 4.3%.
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LaPorte County ranked sixth highest of Indiana’s 92 counties at 3.3% unemployment in December, which was down from 3.6% in November and up from 3% at the same time a year ago, according to the Department of Workforce Development.
Porter County’s unemployment dipped to 2.9% in December, down from 3.1% in November, and up from 1.6% at the same as at the same point a year earlier.
Overall, Indiana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 3.1% in December, up from 3% at the same time the previous year. The U.S. unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% in December, down from 3.6% 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 that has killed more than 1.1 million Americans and more than 6.7 million people around the globe. More than one out of 10 Region residents on average were out of work for months.
In November, joblessness fell all across Northwest Indiana except in Hobart, where it rose by 0.4 percentage point. It dropped by 0.9 percentage point in Gary, 0.8 percentage point in Crown Point and 0.5 percentage point in Portage.
In the Calumet Region, Gary has the highest unemployment rate at 7.2%, followed by East Chicago at 6.3% and Merrillville at 4.8%. Valparaiso has the lowest at 2.4%, followed by Crown Point at 3.1% and Schererville at 3.6%.
