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

Overall, 21,742 county residents were on the job during April of this year. That’s 163 more than in March when 21,579 county residents were working.

The April 2024 rate, which is preliminary, was 0.4% higher than the final April 2023 rate of 2.4%.

The number of county residents reporting they were looking for work in April was 632 compared to 539 who were looking for work during the same month a year earlier.

The county’s labor force was 22,374 in April, which is 139 less than the labor force during the same month in 2023.

The county’s unemployment rate for April was lower than the state’s rate of 3.4% and the national rate which was 3.5%. Jackson County’s rate was lower than any of the surrounding counties.

Other counties and their preliminary unemployment rates for February were Bartholomew, 2.9%; Brown, 3.2%; Jennings, 3.4%; Lawrence, 3.9%; Monroe, 3.4%; Scott, 3.6%; and Washington, 3.2%.

The counties of Daviess and Gibson had the lowest rates in the state at 2.5% in April. The counties of Howard and Kokomo had the highest at 6.1%.