Bartholomew County’s unemployment rate declined last month to its lowest level since the pandemic forced business earlier this year to close and lay off workers at levels not seen since the Great Depression.
In August, the county’s unemployment rate was 5.4%, down from 6.8% in July and 18.4% in April, mirroring a similar trend seen in much of Indiana, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, which released figures Monday.
Bartholomew County was tied for the 48th highest unemployment rate in August out of Indiana’s 92 counties, lower than the statewide rate of 6.5%. In April, unemployment in Bartholomew County was 34th highest in the state, slightly above the overall rate of 17.1% in Indiana.
Despite the decrease, unemployment in Bartholomew County was still about twice as high as it was during the first three months of the year, when unemployment hovered between 2.5% and 2.8%.
Surrounding counties also saw unemployment drop in August, according to state figures.
Brown County’s unemployment rate last month was 5.7%, down from 7.2%. Jackson County saw a decrease of 1.1% to 5.5%, and unemployment fell 1.3% in Jennings County to 5.6%.
The highest jobless rate in the state last month was in Lake County, with 9.4% unemployment. The lowest rate was in Daviess County, with 3.5%.
The new county-level monthly unemployment figures came just three days after the Indiana Department of Workforce Development reported that the state’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.5% in August, down from 7.9% in July and 17.1% in April.
U.S. unemployment was 8.4% in August, down from 10.2% in July, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to 860,000 the week ending Sept. 12, a historically high number of people that illustrates the broad economic damage still taking place nine months after the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the U.S., The Associated Press reported.
The Labor Department said Thursday that U.S. jobless claims fell by 33,000 from the previous week and that 12.6 million are collecting traditional unemployment benefits, compared with just 1.7 million a year ago, according to wire reports.
Until the pandemic upended the operations of American companies, from factories to family diners, weekly jobless aid applications had never exceeded 700,000 in the U.S., according to wire reports. They’ve now topped 700,000 for 26 consecutive weeks.
