By BILL POWELL
bpowell@dcherald.com

Dubois and Gibson counties shared the lowest unemployment in the state in January, according to a new state report.

The two counties in the southwest corner of Indiana each posted a 3.0 percent unemployment rate in January. For Dubois County, that was up six-tenths of a percent from the previous month. Gibson’s rate to start the year was up five-tenths of a percent from December, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

The state’s highest January unemployment — 6.8 percent — remained in Vermillion County, which is north of Terre Haute along the Indiana-Illinois border.

Rates in January rose in all eight of Dubois County’s neighbors: Crawford, 6.0 percent (up from 5.2 percent); Daviess, 3.3 percent (up from 2.7 percent); Martin, 3.5 percent (up from 2.7 percent); Orange, 4.3 percent (up from 3.5 percent); Perry, 4.3 percent (up from 3.7 percent); Pike, 4.1 percent (up from 3.5 percent); Spencer, 4.2 percent (up from 3.3 percent); and Warrick, 3.5 percent (up from 2.9 percent).

The overall state rate in January fell one-tenth of a percent, to 3.5 percent. That kept it under the national rate of 4.0 percent.

With the exception of one month when it was equal (October 2014), Indiana’s unemployment rate now has been below the U.S. rate for more than five years.

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development said Dubois County’s labor force consisted of 23,289 people in January — 22,582 of whom were employed. That left 707 classified as unemployed.

By way of comparison, the county’s rate in January 2018 was 2.6 percent, or four-tenths of a percent lower than the first month of 2019.

Indiana’s 3.5 percent January rate was lower than all of its immediate neighboring states. Those other states’ rates were: Ohio, 4.7 percent (up from 4.6 percent); Kentucky, 4.2 percent (down from 4.4 percent); Michigan, 4.0 percent (unchanged); and Illinois, 4.3 percent (unchanged). Other favorable Midwest rates in January were: Minnesota, 3.0 percent (up from 2.8 percent); and Wisconsin, 3.0 percent (unchanged).