Indiana Jobless Rate Hits 16.9% With Coronavirus Closures

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s unemployment rate hit 16.9 percent for April with more than five times as many people jobless than before widespread business closures started with the coronavirus outbreak.

The Indiana jobless rate was higher than the 14.7 percent national rate. April’s mark was much worse than the state’s peak unemployment rate of 11 percent in 2010 during the last recession, according to federal statistics released Friday.

That report showed about 546,000 people unemployed in Indiana. That’s up from just less than 100,000 unemployed in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey conducted in March just before coronavirus-related closures happened and placed Indiana’s jobless rate at 3 percent.

Indiana’s private sector employment fell by 380,500 workers from March, the state Department of Workforce Development said. The hardest-hit sectors were leisure and hospitality, with 116,000 job losses, and manufacturing, which lost about 78,000 jobs.

The state’s jobless ranks have continued to grow as business closures have continued since mid-March. More than 100,000 people have filed new applications for unemployment in Indiana so far during May.