If you want fries with that, you have several downtown dining options.But fast food – which is sold on dozens of street corners around town – isn’t enough to draw people to the city’s core.The Fort Wayne area saw unemployment dip to 7.5 percent in August – the fifth consecutive monthly drop of the year, Indiana Department of Workforce Development figures showed Friday.
Joblessness in the metropolitan area – made up of Allen, Whitley and Wells counties – saw fewer people out of work in August. The jobless rate stood at 7.6 percent in July.
The state saw its seasonally adjusted jobless rate rise slightly in August to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent in July.
The top sectors with growth this year in Indiana are manufacturing, private education and health services, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality and construction. The categories account for nearly 45,000 jobs. Manufacturing led with 14,300 jobs.
IPFW junior Miguel Bartra remains hopeful about the future.
“I moved here with my parents from Lima, Peru, 10 years ago,” said the 27-year-old, who attended a job fair at IPFW on Thursday. “I’d accept a paid internship from a company as a way to learn the business. That way, if I’m offered a job I already know what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Regionally, seasonally adjusted unemployment rates in August compared with a month earlier rose in Illinois, 9.1 percent from 8.9 percent; Kentucky, 8.5 percent from 8.3 percent; and Michigan, 9.4 percent from 9 percent. Ohio was unchanged at 7.2 percent.
August data for the four Ohio counties bordering northeast Indiana – Defiance, Paulding, Van Wert and Williams – will be released in about a week.
