Indiana's unemployment rate held at 3.3% in August

Indiana's unemployment rate was 3.3 percent in August, where it has been since February, and below the national rate of 4.1 percent. Indiana is tied with Ohio for the 13th-lowest rate among the 50 states. Ohio's rate fell to its lowest level since the state series began in 1976. Illinois and Kentucky are at 4.7 percent, and Michigan is at 5.0 percent.

A year ago, Indiana's rate was 3.7 percent. The drop came from a smaller labor force, not from more people working. Indiana's labor force, the residents who are working or looking for work, shrank by about 22,700 over the year, and the number of employed residents fell by about 6,700. If the labor force had stayed the same size, the loss of employed residents alone would have raised the rate to about 3.9 percent. Employers report the same flat picture. Indiana had 3.27 million payroll jobs in August, 16,100 fewer than a year earlier, a change too small for BLS to call statistically significant.

Labor forces shrank in 36 states over the past year. Indiana's decline, 0.6 percent, is the same as the decline for all states combined.

Layoffs remain low. Over the four weeks ending Sept. 12, Hoosiers filed about 2,160 new unemployment claims per week, 14 percent fewer than in the same weeks last year. In early September, about 17,550 people per week were still collecting benefits. That is 12 percent fewer than a year ago but about one-third more than in the same weeks of 2019.

The September state report comes out Oct. 20.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), State Employment and Unemployment, August 2026 (preliminary), and Local Area Unemployment Statistics; U.S. Department of Labor, weekly unemployment insurance claims for Indiana (not seasonally adjusted), via FRED. Unemployment rates are seasonally adjusted. BLS published no October 2025 state estimates because of the federal government shutdown.