Bartholomew County’s unemployment rate increased in August but was still among the lowest in Indiana as the Federal Reserve continues its battle against inflation.
The jobless rate in Bartholomew County stood at 3% in August, up from 2.5% in August 2022 and tied for the fifth lowest unemployment rate in the state, according to figures released Wednesday by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
U.S. unemployment was 3.8% in August, up from 3.7% in August 2022. Statewide, unemployment in Indiana was 3.4%, up from 3.1% from a year earlier.
In Jackson County, the jobless rate stood at 3.1% last month, up from 3% in August 2022, while unemployment in Jennings County was 3.4%, unchanged from a year earlier.
The update from state officials comes as the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits the week ending Sept. 9 ticked up modestly after falling to the lowest level in seven months the week before, The Associated Press reported.
U.S. applications for jobless claims rose by 3,000 to 220,000 for the week ending Sept. 9, the Labor Department reported last week.
Jobless claim applications are seen as representative of the number of layoffs in a given week.
The four-week moving average of claims, a less volatile measure, fell by 5,000 to 224,500, according to wire reports.
The Federal Reserve is well into the second year of its battle against inflation, having raised interest rates 11 times since March of last year. At 5.4%, the Fed’s benchmark borrowing rate is at the highest level in 22 years.
The Fed’s rate hikes are meant to cool the job market and bring down wages, which many economists believe helps to ease pressure on price growth, according to the AP. Though some measures of inflation have retreated significantly — from as much as 9% down closer to 3% — since the Fed starting raising interest rates, the job market has held up better than most expected.
Earlier this month, the government reported that U.S. employers added 187,000 jobs in August, another sign of a healthy labor market. Though the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.8%, it’s still low by historical measures.
The U.S. economy has been adding an average of about 236,000 jobs per month this year, down from the pandemic surge of the previous two years, but still a strong number.
Recent government data also showed that job openings dropped to 8.8 million in July, the fewest since March 2021 and down from 9.2 million in June, according to wire reports. However, the numbers remain unusually robust considering monthly job openings never topped 8 million before 2021.
Besides some layoffs in the technology sector early this year, companies have mostly been trying to retain workers.
Many businesses struggled to replenish their workforces after cutting jobs during the pandemic, and sizable amount of the ongoing hiring likely reflects efforts by firms to catch up to elevated levels of consumer demand that emerged since the pandemic recession, according to wire reports.
Overall, 1.69 million people were collecting unemployment benefits the week that ended Sept. 2, about 4,000 more than the previous week.
Locally, there were 20 initial unemployment claims filed in Bartholomew County the week ending Sept. 9, down slightly from 23 the week before, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
A total of 110 Bartholomew County workers were drawing jobless benefits the week ending Sept. 2, the most recent data available and down from 117 the week before.
