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State's Unemployment Rate Falls To Lowest Level In 7 Years

Gretchen Frazee
/
indianapublicmedia.org/news

Last month, Indiana’s unemployment rate experienced its biggest one-month decrease in more than two decades, falling to its lowest level in seven years. 

Indiana’s private sector added more than ten thousand jobs in April, boosted by huge gains in the trade, transportation, and utilities sector. 

The unemployment rate fell to 5.4%, the lowest rate since May of 2008.  And the decrease of four-tenths of a percent is the largest since July of 1993. 

The state’s latest job growth numbers also put Indiana within reach of an elusive milestone – peak employment. March of 2000 saw the most Hoosiers ever employed in the private sector at once, with more than 2.6-million people on the job.  After April’s gains, Indiana is now just 7,800 people away from that total.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.
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