Unemployment dropped across Northwest Indiana in February.
Joblessness in the Gary metropolitan area — which includes Lake, Porter, Newton, and Jasper counties — fell to 8.3 percent in February, down from 8.6 percent in January. The unemployment rate in the Michigan City metro, which is solely LaPorte County, declined to 8.6 percent, down from 9.1 percent a month earlier, according to Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
In February, five of the top 11 counties with the highest joblessness in the state were in Northwest Indiana.
Lake County had an jobless rate of 8.8 percent, the second highest out of all 92 counties in Indiana, after only Vermillion County along the Illinois border just north of Terre Haute. LaPorte had the fourth highest rate of 8.5 percent, while Japser was seventh at 8.2 percent and Starke was eighth, also at 8.2 percent.
Newton County came in 11th statewide with a jobless rate of 7.9 percent.
Though the Region lagged behind the rest of the state, unemployment fell in every major city and town in Northwest Indiana in February. The biggest drops were in Valparaiso, Michigan City, Hammond, Merrillville and Gary.
Valparaiso has the lowest unemployment rate in Northwest Indiana at 6.1 percent, and Porter County’s overall rate was a relatively low 7.1 percent. East Chicago, which has been hit with steel mill idlings, has the highest joblessness rate in the state at 11.9 percent.
East Chicago, Gary and Hobart were the only cities in Indiana with double-digit unemployment.
Find the full article at: http://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/jobless-rate-drops-across-northwest-indiana/article_b4d9c5e1-ebea-5f86-97f8-0dd861260555.html