INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WOWO): Indiana’s labor force increased by more than 3,700 people last month.
The Indiana Department of Workforce Development reports the state’s unemployment rate dropped 0.2 percent in July to 4.6 percent, below the national rate of 4.9 percent.
“In Indiana, job creation remains job one, and we continue to see tremendous economic growth across the state,” said Victor Smith, Indiana Secretary of Commerce. “Indiana’s business climate ranks first in the Midwest and fifth overall, supporting Hoosier businesses that are adding jobs at rate of nearly 14 percent [since July 2009] and outpacing the national average.”
Indiana’s labor force participation rate remains at 65.4 percent, which is above the national rate of nearly 63 percent.
1 comment
Darrin,
From my understanding, the number being touted as the unemployment rate figure (4.6%) represents the percentage of people in the state who are currently using state unemployment compensation (UC) benefits.
Is that correct?
If so, then the reported unemployment percentage of 4.6% is completely erronious because not only does it omit people who never qualified for state UC benefits to begin with, but it omits people who exhaust their state UC benefits which, in turn, causes the reported unemployment percentage to drop over time regardless of the true employment situation in the state.
Further, if I am correct in my assumption about how this number is calculated, what inspires our lawmakers to change policies that harm employment opportunties when they can point to a figure that is rigged to fall over time no matter what the employment situation looks like?
This would account for the disparity between the officially reported unemployment and labor participation rates which set unemployment somewhere between approximately 5-35 percent.