Job Dynamics: Creation, Loss and Wages
More than 150,000 jobs were created in Indiana during the last quarter of 2003. The quarterly average of new jobs for the year was 149,562 (see Figure 1). There were also 465,764 new hires, for jobs that already existed but were unfilled, and 621,802 separations. In 2003, the average quarterly turnover rate for Indiana was 10 percent of total jobs, while 5.4 percent of all jobs were created by new or expanding businesses and had not existed in previous quarters (see Table 1).
This new information can help us understand the dynamics of job creation, as well as the job loss in our economy and within industrial sectors. Among the industries with the highest levels of job creation were transportation equipment, administrative and support services, hospitals, and food services (see Table 2).
More than half of all new jobs were created by just 10 counties (see Table 3). Of the average quarterly creation of 149,562 jobs in Indiana, these 10 counties created 87,738. When job creation is calculated as a percent of all jobs in these counties, all 10 either matched or exceeded the state’s 5 percent rate. Tippecanoe County, in particular, experienced the highest rate of job creation at 10 percent.
Table 4 provides an overview of manufacturing data, while Figure 2 highlights total average wages and how the wages of new hires compare in counties across the state.
For more information on the dataset, see the sidebar: Local Employment Dynamics.
Carol O. Rogers
Associate Director, Indiana Business Research Center,
Kelley School of Business, Indiana University