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Wells County’s preliminary unemployment rates for the past seven Decembers tell the story of a countdown.

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development said Wednesday that Wells County’s jobless rate for December 2015 was 3.8 percent, again one of the state’s lowest. In fact, only 11 Hoosier counties had lower jobless rates in December.

The unemployment rate in December of 2009 was 9.4 percent. The number has gone down steadily in Decembers since — 8.3 in 2010, 8.0 in 2011, 7.1 in 2012, 5.5 in 2013, 4.8 in 2014, and 3.8 in 2015.

It was the second straight month that Wells County had a preliminary unemployment rate of 3.8 percent. The release of the January numbers also closed the book on the year; the lowest Wells County unemployment rate in 2015 was 3.3 percent in September and the highest rate was 5.7 percent in January.

The Indiana county with the lowest unemployment rate in December was Hamilton, at 3.1, with Dubois and Bartholomew both at 3.3. Two northeast Indiana counties, Adams and LaGrange, were among three counties with a 3.5 percent unemployment rate.

Other northeastern and area counties were DeKalb and Steuben, both at 3.9 percent; Huntington, Noble, and Whitley, all at 4.1 percent; Allen and Wabash, both at 4.4 percent; Jay, 4.7 percent; Grant, 5 percent; and Blackford, 6 percent.

Greene County in southwestern Indiana had the state’s highest unemployment rate at 7.3 percent, with Vermillion at 7 and Lake at 6.7.

Article by Dave Schultz, Courtesy of the News-Banner