The Starke County unemployment rate for the month of October, 2010 fell from 11.3% to 11.0%, which marked the third month in a row that the rate declined. For 2010, the rate has fallen from a high of 13.9% registered in February.  The preliminary job figures released last week by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) showed a small increase in the total labor force and in the number of employed persons in the county and a similar decrease in the number of unemployed persons in the labor force.

In a move that will result in about 2 million people losing any additional unemployment checks in December, it appears that another extension of the Federal Unemployment Benefits will not take place prior to the current legislation expiring today.  A bill has been introduced in the United States Senate that would extend benefits through all of 2011, but at a cost of $56.4 billion.  Given the shift in power that will take place in January, it is not likely that such a bill will be passed at this point in time.  Under the current law, regular state unemployment benefits are paid for the first 26 weeks, followed by four tiers of emergency unemployment compensation, which last between 6 and 20 weeks, followed by up to five additional months of extended benefits.  For someone who is unemployed the lack of additional funding means that they can complete the funding tier that they are currently in, but then cannot move on to the next tier of benefits, and if they are currently in the extended benefits stage, those benefits will cease altogether on December 12, regardless of where a person might be in that category.

For persons in Indiana, there are currently six unemployment tiers:

     Regular State Unemployment (UI) provides up to 26 weeks of benefits;

     Federal Extensiopn Tier #1 (EEUC) provides up to 20 weeks of benefits;

     Federal Extension Tier #2 (EEUC) provides up to 14 weeks of benefits;

     Federal Extension Tier #3 (EEUC) provides up to 13 weeks of benefits;

     Federal Extension Tier #4 (EEUC) provides up to 6 weeks of benefits;

     Extended Benefits (EB) provides up to 20 weeks in benefits.

Thus, it was possible up to this point to receive a total of 99 weeks of unemployment benefits.

All extended benefits payments will end on Sunday, December 12, 2010, as there will be no funding for those benefits, but if a person has just started on Tier #3 as an example, he or she will be entitled to complete that tier, at which point their benefits will run out.  If a person is in the last week of Tier #3, however, those benefits will run out when that last week is completed.

Despite an increase of 151,000 jobs in the month of October, the largest increase since May, and far in excess of preliminary estimates, the unemployment rate for the United States remained at 9.6% for the month of October.

Following up on last week's announcement by the Tax Foundation that Indiana's business climate is the best in the Midwest and 10th best in the United States, two additional surveys have been released making similar findings.

Site Selection Magazine has performed a survey of national real estate executives and a review of Indiana's economic development record to find that Indiana's business climate is the 8th best in the United States, up one place from last year, and best in the Midwest.  This is the third time in the last three years that Indiana has been ranked in the Top Ten in this survey.

In addition, Area Development Magazine has also rated Indiana's business climate best in the Midwest and 6th in the United States according to a survey of national site selection consultants.