Indiana began 2019 with the same unemployment rate as it ended 2018 – 3.5 percent.
The federal government spends the start of each year collecting more detailed information about the employment situation in each state. So, the first report of the year also includes revisions to previous years’ data.
Based on those revisions, Indiana’s unemployment rate – 3.5 percent – has gone unchanged for eight consecutive months. That’s the longest such streak on record.
Those changes also mean the state’s rate hasn’t improved in 13 months. That’s the longest stretch since the height of the recession in 2009.
But the adjustments also contain some good news. January marks two straight years of growth in the state’s labor force. The labor force counts not just people with a job, but also those actively looking for one. And growth in that measure is typically viewed as a sign of optimism in the economy.
