County’s jobless rate jumps to 14.2%

0
393

HANCOCK COUNTY — The start of the COVID-19 pandemic propelled the county’s unemployment rate for April to 14.2%, more than five times greater than the figure just a month earlier.

The April data for counties, released Tuesday by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, provides a snapshot of unemployment from mid-March, when the pandemic started, through mid-April.

Hancock County’s unemployment rate was 2.4% in April 2019 and 2.7% in March 2020.

Randy Sorrell, executive director of the Hancock Economic Development Council, said the spike was not unexpected.

“It’s awful, but it’s awful across the board,” he said. “…The numbers by themselves are horrific, but when you put them in context, they are less so.”

He’s encouraged by the fact that the county’s unemployment rate didn’t rise as much as the statewide rate, which was 17.1%. That compared to 2.9% a year earlier and 3.2% in March.

Sorrell said he’s also encouraged by where Hancock County placed on recent lists ranking unemployment in the state. The ranked only 69th-highest in April and 70th in March.

“So we fell one spot out of the 92 counties,” Sorrell said. “We pretty much hung in our own space. It’s not great, but obviously we are hopeful that this is temporary.”

Howard County, home to Kokomo, topped April’s list, at 34.1%, while Daviess County, in southwestern Indiana, had the lowest rate, at 8.4%.

Hancock County has a strong manufacturing base, Sorrell continued, a sector that’s been hit hard by the pandemic. BWI Group’s auto parts manufacturing plant in Greenfield temporarily laid off 336 workers in March and recently started working toward resuming operations. Also in March, McCordsville-based sign maker Image One LLC, filed a letter with the department of workforce development regarding a temporary layoff and/or reduction of hours affecting 149 employees. The company filed another letter on April 15 reporting it had recalled 101 of those workers.

“A good portion of our local citizens are engaged in agriculture, and they didn’t suffer much in terms of job losses,” Sorrell added.

At 9.1%, Boone County had the third-lowest unemployment rate in Indiana for April. Hendricks County, at 10.8%, ranked seventh-lowest. Sorrell said both have strong e-commerce bases, an industry to which Hancock County is starting to increasingly cater. More than two dozen large, speculative, warehouse-type buildings — ideal for large inventories of products — are going up in Mt. Comfort.

“As we get more of that kind of diversification in our local economy, we will be more balanced in that regard as well,” he said.

The county’s neighbors also had unemployment rates reach into the double digits for April. Marion County’s was 14%; Hamilton County’s was 10.2%; Madison County’s was 18.7%; Henry County’s was 17.4%; Rush County’s was 18.6%; and Shelby County’s was 19.7%.

National unemployment for April 2020 hit 14.4%, up from last year’s 3.3% and the previous month’s 4.5%.

According to an online database managed by the department of workforce development, 19 initial unemployment insurance claims came from Hancock County residents the week ending March 14, right around the time the pandemic began. The next week, the county had 634 claims — an increase of more than 3,000% from the same week the year before. The week after that brought 1,060 claims — more than 7,000% than that week in 2019.

Claims peaked for Hancock County the week ending April 4, at 1,116, and have been trending downward ever since. The most recent data the department of workforce development has for the county is for the week ending May 9, which had 278 initial claims.

About 546,000 people in Indiana were unemployed in April, more than five times as many as a month earlier, and the state had the fifth-highest unemployment rate in the nation, according to federal statistics released May 22.

Indiana’s unemployment rate easily surpassed its previous high of 12.6% in 1982.

State workforce agency Commissioner Fred Payne said the state was processing fewer ongoing unemployment benefits claims and that more factories were resuming operations.

“Those employers have informed us that they are ramping back up at full strength,” Payne said.

Indiana’s unemployment level was better than Michigan’s 22.7% but slightly higher than in Ohio (16.8%), Illinois (15.4%) and Kentucky (15.4%).

“We do see some signs, but it is going to take some time to get out of this,” Payne said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”By the numbers” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Unemployment

Hancock County

  • April 2020: 14.2%
  • March 2020: 2.7%
  • April 2019: 2.4%

Indiana

  • April 2020: 17.1%
  • March 2020: 3.2%
  • April 2019: 2.9%

U.S.

  • April 2020: 14.4%
  • March 2020: 4.5%
  • April 2019: 3.3%

Source: Indiana Department of Workforce Development

[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”By the numbers” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Initial weekly unemployment insurance claims count for Hancock County

  • March 7: 13
  • March 14: 19
  • March 21: 634
  • March 28: 1,060
  • April 4: 1,116
  • April 11: 1,090
  • April 18: 717
  • April 25: 548
  • May 2: 460
  • May 9: 278

Source: Indiana Department of Workforce Development

[sc:pullout-text-end]