Anderson forecast 2018.

AuthorTruitt, Terry C.
PositionStatistical data

Overview

The new trend continues: After a slow start following the Great Recession, Madison County and the greater Anderson community continue a new trend, especially in comparison to the state. In place of persistent unemployment and a long-term decline in the number of jobs over the last few decades, the economic outlook has improved with lower unemployment rates, an increase in the number of jobs, a narrowing gap compared with Indiana as a whole and an increase in the percentage of adults with academic diplomas.

Employment and job creation

Year to year, the unemployment rate continues to fall. The unemployment rate for Madison County has fallen to less than a third of what it was in 2010. As shown in Table 1, the unemployment rate declined from a high of 12.1 percent in 2010 down to 3.9 percent as of September 2017.

The unemployment rate continued to drop over the course of 2017; however, the decline from the last few years slowed somewhat. As illustrated in Table 2, the unemployment rate for Madison County decreased from 4.3 percent in October 2016 to 3.9 percent as of September 2017.

2017 has shown a significant increase in jobs. After long periods of stagnant and declining employment, the number of employed in Madison County showed healthy increases for the last five years. The number of employed (shown in Table 1) increased from 52,202 in 2012 to 57,842 as of September 2017. This represents an increase of 10.8 percent for Madison County and an increase of 10.9 percent for Indiana.

Jobs recovery ahead of Indiana for 2017: The improvement in employment numbers for Madison County was ahead of Indiana over the year from October 2016 to September 2017. As noted in Table 2, employment increased from 56,843 to 57,842 for Madison County, while the number of employed in Indiana increased from 3,198,332 to 3,221,227. Madison County improved the number of jobs by 1.8 percent over the 12-month period, while Indiana improved by 0.7 percent.

Closing the gap

Unemployment rate: Over the last several years, Madison County has been closing the gap between its unemployment rate and the unemployment rate for Indiana. For decades, the Madison County unemployment rate trailed the state unemployment rate. However, that gap shows significant signs of closing. As shown in Figure 1, from 2010 to September 2017, the unemployment gap has narrowed considerably. The gap was nearly 2 percentage points in 2010 and has narrowed to less than 0.3 points.

Stronger jobs...

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