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Indiana's Unemployment Rate on the Rise

Indiana’s private sector sent a June record for job creation. Yet the state’s unemployment rate rose for the first time in a year.  

The Hoosier private sector added 10,000 jobs last month, including growth in every major employment sector. The surge was led by the leisure and hospitality and construction sectors, each contributing at least 2,700 new jobs. But the state’s unemployment rate rose two-tenths of  a percent to 5.9 percent. 

That’s the first time the rate has gone up since June of 2013. The state Department of Workforce Development attributes the increase to more people looking for work.

About  4,000 people resumed their job hunt last month. Workforce Development Commissioner Scott  Sanders says June’s employment picture is a positive sign, but also evidence that work to recuperate the  state’s economy isn’t finished.

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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