The Department of Workforce Development will release the unemployment report for the month of May later this morning and officials, including Governor Mike Pence, are hoping for a figure that‘s closer to the national jobless rate of 7.6 percent. The April rate in Indiana was 8.5 percent, but that was down two-tenths from March.
Indiana has created private sector jobs in 37 of the last 40 months, but the jobless rate has remained stubbornly high since the recession began - it hasn‘t been below eight-percent since November 2008.
Until last September, Indiana‘s rate had remained relatively close to the national unemployment rate, but there was a full percentage point difference in April - the national rate was 7.5 percent that month.
This story will be updated.