By BILL POWELL
bpowell@dcherald.com

Dubois County and two others — Bartholomew and Tipton — tied for the lowest unemployment in the state in October, according to a new state report.

Bartholomew County — home to Columbus and east of Bloomington — Dubois County and central Indiana’s Tipton County, north of Indianapolis, each posted a 2.6 percent unemployment rate in October, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

For Dubois County, that amounted to an increase of five-tenths of a percent from the previous month (when the county was tied with northeast Indiana’s Adams County at the top of Indiana’s 92-county list).

The state’s highest October unemployment — 5.3 percent — remained in Vermillion County, which is north of Terre Haute along the Indiana-Illinois border. Vermillion County’s rate was up five-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month.

Rates in October rose in all eight of Dubois County’s neighbors: Crawford, 4.5 percent (up from 3.8 percent); Daviess, 2.9 percent (up from 2.3 percent); Martin, 2.9 percent (up from 2.5 percent); Orange, 4.1 percent (up from 3.3 percent); Perry, 3.6 percent (up from 3.2 percent); Pike, 3.5 percent (up from 2.9 percent); Spencer, 3.3 percent (up from 2.9 percent); and Warrick, 3.0 percent (up from 2.5 percent).

The overall state rate in October was 3.5 percent (unchanged), which was below a national rate of 3.7 percent (unchanged). That national rate was holding steady at its 49-year low.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported the U.S. economy added 250,000 jobs in October.

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development said Dubois County’s labor force consisted of 23,335 people in October — 22,725 of whom were employed. That left 610 classified as unemployed.

By way of comparison, the county’s rate in October 2017 was 2.5 percent, or one-tenth of a percent lower than the 10th month of 2018.

Indiana’s 3.5 percent October rate was lower than all of its immediate neighboring states. Those other states’ rates were: Ohio, 4.6 percent (unchanged); Kentucky, 4.5 percent (unchanged); Michigan, 3.9 percent (down from 4.0 percent); and Illinois, 4.2 percent (up from 4.1 percent). Other favorable Midwest rates in October were: Minnesota, 2.8 percent (unchanged); and Wisconsin, 3.0 percent (unchanged).