After being overtaken by Howard County, Lake County continued to have second-highest unemployment rate statewide in May.
Lake County ranked second in joblessness statewide, Starke County ranked seventh, LaPorte County ranked ninth and Porter County ranked 18th in May, the most recent month for which data is available, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
The jobless rate jumped 1 percentage point to 4.6% in May 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 3.6% the previous month and 3.8% in May 2022.
In May, Lake County had the Hoosier State’s second-highest jobless rate at 5%, up from 3.9% from the previous month and up from 4.2% in May 2022. It trailed only 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 4.1% unemployment in May, which was up from 3.2% in April and up from 3.3% at the same time a year ago, according to the Department of Workforce Development.
Porter County’s unemployment rate rose to 3.9% in May, up from 3% in April and up from 3% at the same as at the same point a year earlier.
Overall, Indiana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 3.1% in May, up from 3% the previous month and up from 2.9% at the same time the previous year.
The nation’s unemployment rate rose to 3.7% in May, up from 3.4% in April and also up 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 6.8 million people around the globe. More than one out of 10 Region residents on average were out of work for months.
In May, joblessness rose all across the Calumet Region, increasing by 1.7 percentage points in Gary and East Chicago, 1.3 percentage points in Hammond, 1.2 percentage points in Merrillville and 1.1 percentage points in Crown Point.
In the Calumet Region, Gary has the highest unemployment rate at 8.3%, followed by East Chicago at 7.2%, Merrillville at 5.6% and Hammond at 5.4%. Valparaiso has the lowest jobless rate at 3.6%, followed by Schererville at 3.8% and Crown Point at 4.1%.
