From the Department of Workforce Development:

Indiana’s preliminary seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate showed little change in October, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development reported today.

Indiana’s preliminary rate of 9.8 percent marks an increase of 0.1 percent from a revised September rate of 9.7 percent (+0.1 percent). Indiana’s month-to-month change is considered statistically insignificant. The national unemployment rate increased in October 0.4 percent to 10.2 percent.

"Indiana’s unemployment rate has held relatively steady for the past three months despite a steadily climbing national rate," said Teresa Voors, Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. "However, a projected soft holiday retail season combined with a slump in manufacturing and hospitality employment tempers my optimism concerning the coming months."

Seasonally-adjusted total non-farm employment in Indiana declined by 1,600 in October. Indiana reported the largest employment declines in manufacturing (-5,000), mostly attributed to a slowdown in domestic automobile manufacturing following a temporary "Cash for Clunkers" spike, and leisure and hospitality (-5,900). Sectors reporting large job increases include: construction (4,000), professional and business services (2,200) and financial activities (2,200).

Indiana continues to report the lowest unemployment rate of its neighboring states. Illinois increased 0.5 percent to 11.0 percent. Ohio’s unemployment rate grew 0.4 percent to 10.5 percent. Kentucky increased 0.3 percent to 11.2 percent. Michigan decreased 0.2 percent to 15.1 percent.

Additionally, here is a county breakdown of unemployment figures.

Hat tip to Inside INdiana Business.

A few years ago, some Hoosiers raised an eyebrow when Gov. Daniels successfully proposed the lease of the toll road in northern Indiana to boost the state coffers. Yet, it pales today to the bold (or desperate) actions some states are attempting and taking due to dire financial straits – the likes of which they have never seen.

Hands down, the “winner,” if you will, with the most outlandish gimmick to come up with quick cash is Arizona. The state is seriously considering SELLING its Capitol building and other state properties for $735 million and then leasing them back for $60 million a year.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the problems with this. Sure, it’s a major short-term windfall, but the state is only adding to its debt with the building lease. And what if Arizona can’t come up with its rent money? Will the governor and Legislature have to relocate to less fancy digs – say, a Phoenix strip mall?

The motive is sheer desperation. While California has the title of most beleaguered state budget in terms of actual dollars in debt, no state tops Arizona for percentage of budget shortfall (30% of a more than $10 billion budget). Arizona has also started borrowing from Bank of America to help pay the state’s bills and staggering $3 billion shortfall.

(Learning all this almost makes me want to hear Jim Nabors’ sing “Back Home Again in Indiana” and commit to eating a unique fried food at our state fair next year!)

While Arizona’s possible money “solution” comes from left field, there are plenty more commonplace practices – some legitimate, some a bit sketchy – that states take that can bite them and taxpayers in the end. 

California has tried myriad creative accounting maneuvers to try to make a dent in its nearly $60 billion black hole:  from borrowing from special accounts and local government property taxes to adding to payroll withholdings.  The state also pushed the last month of payroll (June) into the first month (July) of the next fiscal year.  This trick is akin to what used to be a regular occurrence in Indiana: the delaying of local government payments month after month (which ceased with the Daniels administration).

Meanwhile, Illinois legislators recently decided the state should simply not pay its $3.8 billion in bills until the next fiscal year.  Just like when a personal credit card is paid late, there is a price to pay.  For Illinois, that means its vendors may charge up to a 5% penalty.  Now, that’s a late fee that will hurt!

Bottom line: States’ budget quick fixes often come with consequences – steep ones.  Indiana, fortunately, is in better fiscal shape than nearly all others. I guess that’s another thing to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

W. Todd Roberson of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business wrote a guest column for our BizVoice magazine analyzing the new look of the Small Business Administration. Here’s a taste, but he explains the reasons some are for and some are against new measures in the full column:

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2008 (the “stimulus bill”) authorizes significant changes in the way the 338 federally sanctioned Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) can support small enterprises. In a nutshell, firms supported by venture capital (VC) now qualify for SBA guaranteed loans, grants and assistance. In other words, VC firms can now tap into federally guaranteed funds double the base of capital they have to invest in emerging enterprises.

The SBA also has raised the amount that VC firms can invest in any one business to 30% of the total capital under management. For favored small business owners this translates into less time pounding the pavement to find financing – a great advantage in a period of severe credit contraction. Time, after all, even in a new age, is money.

Note the word “favored” above. Herein lies the rub. Critics note that truly “small” firms generally do not interface with venture capital. (The current definition of “small” at the SBA is $18 million or less in net worth.) One direct and immediately observable effect of the SBA’s foray into working with VC firms is the increase in the lobbying outlays by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA): from $500,000 in 2005 to over $2 million in 2008.

Critics suggest an alternative: simply lower business taxes on the nation’s entrepreneurs. In fact, studies by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (a think tank associated with American entrepreneurship) find no correlation between long-term job creation and early-stage association with venture capital. The correlation, however, is striking between VC involvement and government and university (read: quasi-government) grants.

Obviously, it’s not stunning news that many Americans are not happy with their current elected officials. You might find it interesting, however, to peruse the Pew Research Center’s analysis of the situation:

The mood of America is glum. Two-thirds of the public is dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country. Fully nine-in-ten say that national economic conditions are only fair or poor, and nearly two-thirds describe their own finances that way — the most since the summer of 1992. An increasing proportion of Americans say that the war in Afghanistan is not going well, and a plurality continues to oppose the health care reform proposals in Congress.

Despite the public’s grim mood, overall opinion of Barack Obama has not soured — his job approval rating of 51% is largely unchanged since July, although his approval rating on Afghanistan has declined. But opinions about congressional incumbents are another matter.

About half (52%) of registered voters would like to see their own representative re-elected next year, while 34% say that most members of Congress should be re-elected. Both measures are among the most negative in two decades of Pew Research surveys. Other low points were during the 1994 and 2006 election cycles, when the party in power suffered large losses in midterm elections.

Support for congressional incumbents is particularly low among political independents. Only 42% of independent voters want to see their own representative re-elected and just 25% would like to see most members of Congress re-elected. Both measures are near all-time lows in Pew Research surveys.

The Foundry blog of the Heritage Foundation has an interesting post about the gains New York City schools have made by not allowing undeserving students to move forward. They write:

New evidence shows that ending social promotion – the practice of allowing students to advance a grade level without having mastered the content of their current grade – is having a positive result in student testing. A new study released on October 15th by the RAND corp. shows how New York City seventh graders who were held back as fifth graders have made academic gains.

The study, which looks at the effectiveness of the New York City Department of Education’s 2003 grade promotion policy, finds that fifth-graders who were held back due to low testing scores in math and language arts tested better as seventh-graders than did their peers who also tested low but advanced to grade six anyway. The policy, which put an end to social promotion for fifth-graders in 2003-04, has since been expanded to include grades five through eight.

Students in the Big Apple aren’t the only benefactors of the new policy. New York City Schools’ Chancellor Joel Klein takes notice of the success Florida has also had by ending social promotion. Klein writes about the similarities that exist between the policies Florida has implemented and those New York City is trying to implement in Education Next:

“Like Florida’s schools, New York City’s serve a high-needs population. But we are not allowing demographics to define our outcomes. Since 2002, our students have made steady progress. Today, far more students are meeting and exceeding standards in math and reading. We’ve substantially narrowed the racial and ethnic achievement gap, our students are catching up to students in the rest of the state, and our graduation rate is the highest it has been in decades.”

• Why does the U.S. Senate routinely have meetings scheduled at 2 p.m. to discuss what is commonly termed "morning business?"
• Speaking of the Senate, will it actually add strong nuclear energy language to the climate legislation that is almost assuredly becoming a 2010 topic?
• Outside of Washington, does an Alabama state senator really expect to generate support for an amendment to abolish gambling in the state? Although we’re talking charity bingo and betting at dog tracks, an apt phrase might be that "the horse is out of the barn" on that one
• On the topic of gaming, what will be the fate of several of Indiana’s establishments? The Hoosier state is no doubt "all in" and individual riverboats, racinos and the like are faced with the continued slow economy, company bankruptcies and further competition on the way from Ohio (and maybe others)
• Where will ethics reform go in the state General Assembly? Legislative leaders are talking about it and the state’s leading newspapers are advocating for it. My unofficial take: set the rules and we’ll play by them, just as we do now
• No question to close; just a compliment. In the state’s largest newspaper, congrats to Matt Tully for his continuing series of columns exploring the challenges at Indianapolis Manual High School. You can agree or disagree with his opinions and insights, but the work put into the project and the writing is exemplary

Yes, our current health care system is broken. No, a multi-billion dollar annual tax on medical device companies should not be part of any so-called solution. As our country seeks to emerge from the recession, the last thing we should be doing is discouraging entrepreneurs and businesses that are providing all-important technologies and jobs.  Continued innovation, not intervention, is what is needed.

Steve Ferguson, a longtime Indiana business and community leader, describes why the tax is so bad for our state. Ferguson, the 2010 Indiana Chamber board chairman and chairman of Cook Group in Bloomington, talked with Gerry Dick of Inside INdiana Business.