Unemployment rose across Northwest Indiana in June as Lake County returned to having the highest employment rate statewide.
LaPorte County ranked ninth in joblessness statewide, Porter County 15th and Starke County 16th in June, the most recent month for which data is available, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
The jobless rate jumped 0.6 percentage point to 5.2% in June across the Gary metropolitan area, which encompasses Lake, Porter, Newton and Jasper counties, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, and the unemployment rate in the Gary metro area was 4.6% the previous month and 4.5% in June 2022.
In June, Lake County had the Hoosier State’s highest jobless rate at 5.8%, up from 5% from the previous month and up from 4.9% in June 2022. It surpassed Howard County, a similarly blue-collar area that’s home to the factory town of Kokomo.
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LaPorte County ranked ninth highest of Indiana’s 92 counties at 4.3% unemployment in June, which was up from 4.1% in May and up from 3.9% at the same time a year ago, according to the Department of Workforce Development.
Porter County’s unemployment rate rose to 4.1% in June, up from 3.9% in May and up from 3.5% at the same as at the same point a year earlier.
Overall, Indiana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 3.2% in June, up from 3.1% the previous month and up from 2.9% at the same time the previous year.
The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 3.6% in June, down from 3.7% in May and the same as 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 6.8 million people around the globe. More than one out of 10 Region residents on average were out of work for months.
In June, joblessness rose all across the Calumet Region, increasing by 1.9 percentage points in Gary, 1.3 percentage points in East Chicago and 0.7 percentage points in Hammond.
In the Calumet Region, Gary has the highest unemployment rate at 10.2%, followed by East Chicago at 8.6%, Merrillville at 6.5% and Hammond at 6.2%. Valparaiso has the lowest jobless rate at 3.7%, followed by Crown Point at 4.1% and Schererville at 4.2%.
