Putnam jobless rate better as Dixie Chopper factor looms

With the specter of more than 100 lost Dixie Chopper jobs hanging over the unemployment picture and about to be added to the jobless figure mix next month, Putnam County posted its best numbers and ranking in several months in figures released this week.

The announced late November closing of the Dixie Chopper facility at Fillmore after nearly 40 years undoubtedly hasn’t factored into these latest figures, which place the Putnam totals in the top half of the state rankings for the first time in several months.

Thus the latest Putnam unemployment figure of 3.6 percent is good enough for a tie with eight other counties -- Washington, Spencer, Ohio, Marion, Jefferson, Fulton, Dearborn and Clark -- for 44th best among Indiana’s 92 counties, according to the numbers released Wednesday by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

The Putnam figure for October was 3.7 percent, which placed 58th overall.

For November, the Putnam County figure still remains better than all other contiguous counties with the exception of Hendricks, Morgan and Montgomery, all of which landed in the top 25. Hendricks County posted a 3.0 percent mark to tie for 12th best overall, while Morgan was tied for 22nd at 3.3 percent and Montgomery earned a tie for 25th best with a 3.4 percent jobless mark for the month.

Among the other contiguous counties, Clay County, at 4.0 percent, was in a tie for the 70th spot, while Parke County, at 4.1 percent, posted the state’s 19th worst jobless figure and Owen County landed in the bottom 15, at 13th worst in Indiana at 4.4 percent.

Putnam County did post the best November numbers of all west-central Indiana counties, topping Vigo (4.6 percent), Greene (4.9), Vermillion (5.2) and Sullivan (5.6) as well as the aforementioned Clay, Parke and Owen.

Meanwhile, the 10 best Hoosier jobless rates for November belong to the counties of Dubois and Bartholomew, 2.7; Wells, LaGrange, Gibson, Boone and Adams, 2.8; Hamilton, Steuben, Kosciusko and Daviess, all tied at 2.9 percent.

At the opposite end of the Hoosier unemployment spectrum, counties posting the worst Indiana jobless rates for November were Howard, 8.3 percent; Miami, 6.5; Vermillion, 5.2; Lake, 5.0; Fayette and Greene, 4.9; Cass and Tipton, 4.7 percent; and Crawford, Sullivan and Vigo, 4.6.

Indiana’s unemployment rate stands at 3.6 percent for November and remains lower than the national rate of 3.7 percent.

With the exception of one month when it was equal (October 2014), Indiana’s unemployment rate now has been below the U.S. rate for more than five years. The monthly unemployment rate is a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicator that reflects the number of unemployed people seeking employment within the prior four weeks as a percentage of the labor force.

Indiana’s labor force had a net increase of 2,216 over the previous month. This was a result of a 2,122 increase in unemployed residents and an increase of 94 employed residents.

Indiana’s total labor force, which includes both Hoosiers employed and those seeking employment, stands at 3.4 million, and the state’s 65.1 percent labor force participation rate remains above the national rate of 62.9 percent.

The 3.6 percent Hoosier mark is also better than the contiguous states of Michigan (3.9), Illinois (4.2), Kentucky (4.5) and Ohio (4.6).