KOSCIUSKO — The December 2017 employment data was recently released by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. Kosciusko County’s unemployment rate remains low at 2.3 percent, the state of Indiana’s average is 3.4 percent.

Both Kosciusko County and Indiana as a whole remain lower than the national rate of 4.1 percent. With the exception of one month when it was equal (October 2014), Indiana’s unemployment rate has now been below the U.S. rate for more than four years.

Kosciusko County ranked as tied for the fifth lowest unemployment rate in Indiana by county. Currently, Adams and Dubois have rates of 2.2 percent, Elkhart County has a rate of 2.1 percent and LaGrange has a rate of 2 percent.

Indiana’s labor force had a net decrease of 14,195 over the previous month. This was a result of 10,696 unemployed residents no longer seeking employment within the past four weeks, and a 3,499 decrease in residents employed. Indiana’s total labor force, which includes both Hoosiers employed and those seeking employment, stands at 3.30 million, and the state’s 63.6 percent labor force participation rate remains above the national rate of 62.7 percent.