Starke County’s April unemployment rate hits a seven-year low. The local jobless rate tumbled from 7-point-6 percent in March to 5-point-8 percent in April. That’s the lowest it’s been since November of 2007. All 92 counties saw drops in unemployment, according to figures released by the state.
Starke, LaPorte and St. Joseph Counties are still above the state and national April unemployment rates of 5.4 percent. Pulaski County’s jobless rate for April is 4.3 percent, while Marshall County is sitting at 3.9. Indiana is just shy of the peak employment of March of 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Department of Workforce Development spokesman Joe Frank says the state is just 7,800 jobs shy of that figure. The state’s jobless is at a nearly-seven-year low and half that of the peak unemployment back in July of 2009. Frank adds that drop is tied for the fourth-largest in the country. In April alone, the state grew 10,600 private sector and 2,400 construction jobs. Since January of 2013 Indiana has added 112,000 jobs.
