October Indiana County, City & MSA Employment Report

Indiana’s unemployment rate for September 2021, which stood at 4.0% when released on Oct. 22, has since been revised downward to 3.5% by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Indiana’s labor force participation rate for September also has been revised downward by BLS, from 63.0% to 62.9%.

BLS made the revision after discovering an immediate change needed to the unemployment rate model that affected the East North Central Region, which includes Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

BLS said unemployment statistical models used to calculate labor force data have been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective October 2021, BLS changed its approach to detecting and adjusting for outliers in monthly statewide data. The distortions made to January-August 2021 statewide labor force estimates will be modified during the annual benchmarking process in February 2022.

For more information from BLS, please go to: https://www.bls.gov/lau/launews1.htm.