Pelath on jobs reports: Indiana excelling in creating jobs that don’t pay well

INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath from Michigan City issued the following statement on unemployment figures released today by the state Department of Workforce Development (DWD):

“Each month’s Indiana Employment Report offers a great deal of sound and fury that signifies very little in helping restore Indiana’s middle class. Take the latest version.

“Yes, we may continue to keep our unemployment rate at 5.7 percent, and yes, our leaders may continue to roll out figure after figure from business types that tell us we have a wonderful business climate.

“But there are numbers out there that should give all of us continued call for concern.

“According to the State Policy Report issued by the Federal Funds Information for States, Indiana ranked 50th in personal income growth from Spring 2013 to Spring 2014. While the national income growth rate was a robust 3.55 percent from the first quarter of 2013 to the first quarter of 2014, Indiana’s rate was just 1.04 percent. That ranks us 47th in the country.

“And that means that we continue to create jobs that don’t pay well…which tends to defeat the idea that we have a growing economy.

“This only proves the need to continue our search for creation of good-paying jobs in the 2015 session of the Indiana General Assembly. A rising economic tide that lifts only a few and submerges the rest isn’t something to be bragging about. It’s something to stop.”