Bartholomew County’s unemployment rate dropped last month to its lowest level in at least 31 years, according to data released Monday by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
In November, the jobless rate stood at 1.6% for just the third time since 1990 and down from a revised 2% in October, state records show. Unemployment in Indiana stood at 4.2% last month, down from 4.6% in October.
The last time Bartholomew County recorded an unemployment rate of 1.6% was May 1999 — when Bill Clinton was president and Frank O’Bannon was Indiana governor. The only other time local unemployment was as low as 1.6% was in April 1998.
However, the November figures are not final and could be adjusted later. Last month, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development initially said October unemployment in Bartholomew County was 1.8% but later revised the figure to 2%.
By comparison, the average local jobless rate was 4.3% from 1990 to 2019, with notable spikes around the time of the Great Recession.
In the year leading up to the pandemic, unemployment hovered between 2% and 2.7% before the virus sent the local economy into a tailspin in spring 2020. The local jobless rate has decreased in 15 of the previous 19 months since reaching a high of just over 17% in April 2020.
The update from the state officials came as America’s unemployment rate tumbled last month to its lowest point since the pandemic struck, even as employers appeared to slow their hiring — a mixed picture that pointed to a resilient economy that’s putting more people to work, The Associated Press reported.
The government reported earlier this month that businesses and other employers added just 210,000 jobs in November, the weakest monthly gain in nearly a year and less than half of October’s increase of 546,000, according to wire reports.
But other data from the Labor Department’s report painted a brighter picture. The unemployment rate plummeted from 4.6% to 4.2% as a substantial 1.1 million Americans said they found jobs last month.
The U.S. economy still remains under threat from a spike in inflation, shortages of labor and supplies and the potential impact of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to wire reports. But for now, Americans are spending freely, and the economy is forecast to expand at a 7% annual rate in the final three months of the year, a sharp rebound from the 2.1% pace in the previous quarter, when the delta variant hobbled growth.
For months, employers have been struggling with worker shortages because many people who lost jobs in the pandemic have not, for various reasons, returned to the workforce, according to the AP. But last month, nearly 600,000 people came off the sidelines to look for jobs and were generally hired quickly. The government classifies people as unemployed only if they’re actively seeking work.
As a result, the proportion of Americans who are in the workforce rose from 61.6% to 61.8%, the first significant increase since April, according to wire reports. If that much-anticipated development continues, it could point to stronger job growth ahead.
There were 44,623 people in Bartholomew County’s labor force last month, about 1,100 fewer than in November 2019 but around 340 more than this past October, according to state records.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
