Ind. economic activity increases while losing jobs in Sept.

Indiana’s economy seemed to pick up the tiniest bit of steam in September, based on data from the Leading Index for Indiana, a project of the Indiana Business Research Center.

The LII takes the numerous aspects of Indiana’s economy into account to get a numerical value that measures Indiana’s economic activity. The September value rose a tenth of a point to 96.4, up from 96.3 in August.

After a brief recovery late last year, the LII has been fluctuating in small amounts since May 2011. The LII hit a post-economic-crisis high of 96 in January 2011, up from an all-time low of 94.6 after the crisis hit hardest in 2009. The LII peaked at 103.9 in 2006.

The September LII report predicts a possible lukewarm gain in economic activity in the next few months, based on last year’s data from the same point in the year.

“If history repeats this fall, we would expect to see the LII recover some of the ground lost since the start of 2011, signaling tepid growth in the coming months,” the September LII report indicated.

The main factor that led to the small increase in economic activity in September was a significant increase in consumer confidence in the housing market. Losses in the auto sector, however, mitigated most of the positive effects of the boost in consumer confidence on the LII.

While the LII increased in September, Indiana’s unemployment rate suffered. The unemployment rate currently stands at 8.9 percent, beneath the national rate of 9.1 percent but an increase from Indiana’s August rate of 8.7 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau found that Indiana lost about 6,600 jobs in September, putting Indiana’s unemployed at 277,600 people.

The Indiana unemployment rate has steadily increased since May of this year.

— Zach Ammerman