Jackson County’s unemployment rate stood at 3.4% in May, up from 2.8% in April, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce’s latest reported released Wednesday.

Overall, 21,691 county residents were on the job during May. That’s 393 less than the 22,084 county residents working in May of 2023.

May’s rate, which is preliminary, was 0.4% higher than the final May 2023 rate of 3.0%.

The number of county residents reporting they were looking for work in May was 767 compared to the 693 who were looking for work during the same month a year earlier.

The county’s labor force was 22,458 in May, which is 319 less than the labor force of 22,777 during the same month in 2023.

The county’s unemployment rate for May was lower than the state’s rate of 3.7% and the national rate which was 4.0%. Jackson County’s rate was lower than any of the surrounding counties.

Other counties and their preliminary unemployment rates for February were Bartholomew, 3.5%; Brown, 3.6%; Jennings, 3.6%; Lawrence, 4.3%; Monroe, 4.4%; Scott, 4.3%; and Washington, 3.7%.

The counties of Daviess, Gibson and Martin had the lowest rates in the state at 3.1% in May while Howard County had the highest rate at 5.7%.