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Lawrence County Employment Rate Falls Four Spots

Last updated on Tuesday, August 2, 2016

(UNDATED) - Indiana is still suffering in the wake of the Great Recession, and needs 108,400 jobs to regain its pre-recession employment rate.

In just one month Lawrence County's unemployment rate fell four spots.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, when the recession began in December 2007, Indiana had 2,993,100 jobs. Since then, Indiana has experienced 29 months of job loss. Indiana's employment trough occurred in July 2009 when Indiana had 235,400 fewer jobs than it did before the recession started. Now, as of June 2016 data, Indiana has 77,100 more jobs. 

Indiana's jobs deficit, or the difference between the number of jobs Indiana has and the number it needs to regain its pre-recession employment rate, is 108,400. That number includes the 77,100 jobs Indiana gained less the 185,500 jobs it needs to keep up with the 6.2% growth in population that Indiana has experienced in the 102 months since the recession began. 

In June, Lawrence County unemployment rate was 5.6 percent now the 11th-highest in the state.

Greene County had the highest unemployment in the state with 6.7 percent, and Dubois County had the lowest at 3.3 percent.

Despite a lot of counties having higher rates than the previous month, Lawrence County unemployment rate remained the same as it was in May. According to statistics, Lawrence County's unemployment rate is actually lower then June 2015 at 6.3 percent.

According to the report, June saw 19,572 Lawrence County residents with jobs, compared to 19,425 in May and 19,109 in June 2015.

But even though the number of employed people rose, the labor force also grew from 20,393 in June 2015 to 20,731 this year. So because both the number of employed people and the number of people in the labor force grew, the unemployment rate remains unchanged.

The data shows that in June, 1,159 people were unemployed, which is slightly higher than May's number of unemployed people at 1,148. In June last year, that number was 1,284.

Greene County unemployment rate was highest in the state at 6.7 percent in June. That number is also up from thier May rate at 6.3 percent, and up from June of 2015, which was 6.3 percent.

Martin County unemployment was at 4.3 percent in June, 0.3 percent worse than its May rate of 4 percent. In June last year, the rate was at 4.1 percent.

Orange County ranked 20th-highest in the state at 5.2 percent in June, compared to 5 percent in April and 5.8 percent in June last year.

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