Jackson County’s unemployment rate stood at 3.1% in January, unchanged from the same month in 2023, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce’s latest reported released Tuesday.
Overall, 21,176 county residents were on the job during January of this year. That’s 879 less than in January 2023 when 22,055 county residents were working. The jobless rate at that time also was 3.1%.
The January 2024 rate, which is preliminary, was 0.8% higher than the final December 2023 rate of 2.3%.
The number of county residents reporting they were looking for work in January was 690 compared to 714 who were looking for work during the same month a year earlier.
The county’s labor force was 22,466 in January which is 303 less than labor force during the same month in 2023.
The county’s unemployment rate for January was lower than the state’s rate of 3.8% and the national rate of 4.1%. Jackson County’s rate also was lower than any of the surrounding counties.
Other counties and their preliminary unemployment rates for December were Bartholomew, 3.5%; Brown, 3.9%; Jennings, 4.4%; Lawrence, 4.6%; Monroe, 3.7%; Scott, 4.2%; and Washington, 3.7%.
Gibson County had the lowest rate in the state at 2.8% in December, and Lake County had the highest at 5.7%.