Jobless rate same as state

Average. Exactly the same as the state average.

That’s how the Putnam County unemployment figure for November stacks up. The latest mark is 3.2 percent, four-tenths of a percentage point better than third of the overall Indiana county jobless rankings.

The new Putnam jobless figure of 3.2 percent is good enough for a tie with four other counties – Scott, Monroe, Cass and Allen -- for 56th best among Indiana’s 92 counties, according to the jobless numbers released this week by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

For November, the Putnam figure remains better than all other contiguous counties with the exceptions of Hendricks, Morgan and Montgomery, all of which landed in the top 50. Hendricks County posted a 2.6 percent mark to tie for 10th best overall, while Morgan tied for 33rd best at 2.9 percent. Montgomery earned a tie for 49th with its 3.1 percent jobless mark for the month.

Among the other contiguous counties, Owen, Parke and Clay all tumbled into the bottom 25 for the month.

Parke, at 3.8 percent, posted the eighth worst unemployment figure for November, while Owen, at 3.6 percent, was tied with Crawford County at 14th worst overall. Clay County, at 3.4 percent, was in an eight-way tie for the 21st worst showing overall.

Putnam County did again post the best numbers of all the west-central Indiana counties in November, topping Vermillion (4.6 percent), Vigo (4.0 percent), Greene (3.7) and Sullivan (3.7) as well as the previously noted Clay, Parke and Owen.

Meanwhile, the 10 best Hoosier jobless rates for November belong to the counties of Tipton at 2.1 percent; Dubois and Bartholomew, 2.3; Hamilton and Boone, 2.4; Martin, Jackson and Daviess, 2.5; and White, Wells, Posey, Steuben, LaGrange, Johnson and Hendricks, all tied for 10th at 2.6 percent.

At the opposite end of the Hoosier unemployment spectrum, counties posting the worst Indiana jobless rates for November were Fayette and Vermillion 4.6; Lake, 4.5; Starke and Vigo, 4.0; Blackford and LaPorte, 3.9 percent; Parke, 3.8; Delaware, Greene, Lawrence, Randolph and Sullivan, 3.7 percent.

Indiana’s unemployment rate last month remained at 3.2 percent for the second consecutive month.

An unemployment rate at 3.2 percent is the lowest Indiana has posted since December 2000. And it’s better than every neighboring state by nearly a full percentage point.

Meanwhile, the Indiana labor force grew slightly in November and has now improved two months in a row.