Indiana's private sector began 2015 by adding 8,600 jobs, but the state's unemployment rate rose to its highest level in nearly a year.
Indiana's job growth in January was boosted largely by significant gains in the trade, transportation and utilities sector, and more than 1,000 added manufacturing jobs.
Over the last two years, the state added new jobs in all but five months.
But the state's labor force also grew last month, leading to a higher unemployment rate of six percent.
After also increasing in December, the unemployment rate rose two months in a row for the first time in two years. Yet Department of Workforce Development Commissioner Steven Braun says that's a positive sign.
Braun says a higher labor force means more people are returning to and looking for work, encouraged by the availability of new jobs.