By 2020, it's projected the population of Delaware County will drop by around 500 people, according to Stats Indiana. It can be difficult to say what the economy will be like at that time, but for now, some economists remain cautious.
The creation of 142,000 jobs in Indiana in September is indicative of a worsening economy, said Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research.
While that might sound like a lot of opportunities for the unemployed, Hicks said it doesn’t make up for the 350,000 workers who lost their jobs last month.
“[The state of the economy] is just not a really healthy picture … at this moment,” Hicks said.
Marilyn Flowers, an economics professor, said ideally state-wide, 230,000 to 250,000 jobs would be created each month. The September figure is much lower than that ideal. However, this number could change in coming months as economists gather more data.
While the amount of jobs created isn’t as high as many economists think it should be, the unemployment rate in Muncie was at 5.4 percent as of August 2015, according to Stats Indiana, compared to the national rate of 5.1 percent, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Hicks said most of the evidence points to a falling unemployment, but many employers are also cutting back on the hours employees work, which could influence numbers.
Flowers said some economists believe full employment—where an unemployment rate can be sustained without having significant economy inflation—might happen in the near future.
However, there are other concerns with the labor market, she said.
“We still have more people working part-time who would like to have full-time jobs than we would traditionally expect in a healthy economy,” Flowers said.
The job market for college graduates has been weaker than normal, Flowers said, and while that will probably improve, some majors have stronger job markets than others.
Hicks said many who remain unemployed are those who only have a high school diploma and face “poor employment prospects,” and most jobs created during the recession go to college graduates.
“We have such a high proportion of people with only a high school degree [in Delaware County],” Hicks said. “[But] Muncie’s biggest employers are Ball State and Ball Memorial Hospital. They’re really the economic engines in Muncie.”
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