States report higher unemployment in Sept.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Unemployment rose in 23 states last month as the economy struggled to create jobs in the early stages of the recovery.
While layoffs have slowed, companies remain reluctant to hire. Forty-three states reported job losses in September, while only seven gained jobs, the Labor Department said Wednesday.
Wednesday’s report underscores the uneven nature of the recovery. The unemployment rate dropped in some Midwestern states as the manufacturing sector improved. But Florida and Nevada, two of the states hit hardest by the housing slump, reported record-high jobless rates.
Some of the states that lost jobs still saw their unemployment rates improve, as discouraged workers gave up looking for work. People who are out of work but no longer looking for jobs aren’t counted as officially unemployed.
That trend was evident nationwide in September, as nearly 600,000 people dropped out of the work force, the department reported earlier this month.
The U.S. jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, a 26-year high, from 9.7 percent. Some economists estimate it would have topped 10 percent if there had been no change in the labor force.
There were some bright spots in Wednesday’s report. The Midwest region, hit hard during the recession by job losses in manufacturing, saw its unemployment rate drop for the second straight month, to 9.8 percent from 10 percent in August. It was the only region where the unemployment rate declined.
The Midwest benefited from sharp drops in unemployment in Indiana and Ohio. Indiana’s jobless rate fell to 9.6 percent, from 9.9 percent in August and 10.7 percent in June.
Indiana added 4,400 jobs, the most of any state, due to gains in manufacturing, services and government.
The state’s jobless rate has dropped for two straight months, said Robert Guell, an economics professor at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, easing his skepticism that the improvement might have been a fluke.
“It does look green shoot-like,” he said.
The state has benefited from a rebound in the auto sector and a healthy medical device industry, he said. Indiana is home to many auto parts and assembly plants, which are ramping up production as General Motors and Chrysler seek to replenish inventories depleted by the popular Cash for Clunkers program.
Honda Motor Co. also manufactures the Civic at a plant in the state, Guell said. The Civic was a major beneficiary of the clunkers program, which provided rebates to consumers who traded in old cars for newer, more fuel-efficient models.