[Southsider2k12]

http://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/une...3df9826daa.html

Unemployment fell across Northwest Indiana in August, continuing a downward slide.

The jobless rate in the Gary metropolitan area — which spans Lake, Porter, Newton and Jasper counties — fell to 6 percent in August, down from 6.3 percent in July, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. Unemployment in the Michigan City metro area, which is just LaPorte County, declined from 5.8 percent in July to 5.7 percent in August.

Statewide, joblessness fell 0.1 percent to 4.6 percent in July. Indiana is now at what economists call "full employment," or what's believed to be a natural and inevitable jobless rate in a healthy economy, but joblessness in the Calumet Region remains a little higher.

An estimated 318,149 people were employed in the Gary metro in July, or nearly 4,000 fewer than in July. Unemployment fell, because 5,260 people left the labor force, meaning they were no longer actively seeking work. About 746 fewer people had jobs in the Michigan City metro in August, but the workforce declined by 870 people.

Joblessness is 1.6 percent lower in the Gary metro and 1.8 percent less in the Michigan City metropolitan area than it was a year ago. Unemployment had been as high as 12 percent in Northwest Indiana during the economic downturn.

Lake County still had the second-highest unemployment rate in the state at 6.5 percent in August, and LaPorte County had the eighth-highest – 5.7 percent – out of Indiana's 92 counties.

Unemployment fell in many major cities and towns in the region, dropping as much as 0.4 percent in Hobart. It was unchanged in Merrillville, Portage and Valparaiso, and rose slightly in East Chicago and Michigan City.