The Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) released its April unemployment report earlier today,which included the fact that all 92 Indiana counties reflected a decrease in their respective rate from that reported in March.  The State rate fell to 7.9%, which now puts the State below the national rate of 8.1%, and was the fifth straight month that the rate declined.  Private sector jobs grew by 15.400 during the month, which was the fourth largest one-month increase in 22 years.  Manufacturing accounted for 6,200 of these new jobs.  For Indiana, this was the first time since November of 2008 that the rate was below 8%.

For Starke County, the rate fell a full percentage point, down to 9.8%, which similarly was the first time that the County rate has been below 10% since November of 2008.  Over 100 additional people obtained employment for the month.  The County rate has now fallen almost 2% since January of this year.

Indiana continues to fare well with its contiguous states, with only Ohio having a lower rate of 7.4%. The other 3 contiguous states are still reporting unemployment rates in excess of 8%.

Knox Mayor Rick Chambers reported this morning that construction work on the bridge on US 35 on the north side of Knox is approximately 2 weeks ahead of time with the contracted work. However, new replacement parts are not going to be delivered until June 1.  During this period of time, crews will be working to repair the south support pillar which is in worse shape than originally believed, and when new parts for the bridge are delivered on June 1, the original schedule will be followed.

Wendy Hoppe, owner of Hoppe PRO Hardware in North Judson, Indiana has been nominated in the category of Influential Woman of the Year in Construction for this year's awards banquet, to be held at the Radisson Star Plaza on May 31, from 5:00 to 8:00 pm.  Hoppe is one of three nominees in that category.  Winners in each of several categories will be announced at the awards banquet.

Hoppe is currently the President of the North Judson Town Council, has served for eight years on the Board of Directors of the Starke/Pulaski Habitat for Humanity, and is currently serving her second year on the Board of the Starke County Economic Development Foundation.  Hoppe was the first licensed female plumbing contractor in Indiana, and has held that license for over 25 years. She has been in the hardware business for the past 40 years, taking over the family business 5 years ago.  Prior to that, Hoppe was a sales representative in the hardware business for over 25 years, covering parts of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

Peter Laman has announced his resignation as Port Director for the Port of Indiana - Burns Harbor, and will be replaced in that position by Anthony Kuk.  Kuk comes to the Port after serving as general manager for Nexeco Solutions' Midwest operations based in Chicago.  Kuk will officially takes over this position today.

The Department of Labor issued its April jobs report this morning. The good news was that the unemployment rate dropped from 8.2% down to 8.1%, which was coupled with the bad news that only 115,000 new jobs were created during the month. Experts had expected 170,000 new jobs for the month. Most analysts believe that the fall in interest rates coupled with the news of fewer new jobs points toward fewer people continuing to seek employment. In order to be included in the count of unemployed for calculating the unemployment rate, it is necessary that someone actually be actively seeking work. In the past several months, it appears that more people have dropped out of the ranks of seeking employment, which has more to do with the lower unemployment rate than the creation of new jobs.