A bad economic situation took a turn for the worse in December in Elkhart County and much of Indiana.

The release of December unemployment statistics showed a jobless rate of 15.3% in Elkhart County—the highest in the state and perhaps a local record.

“Well the unemployment rate being 15.3% is our highest that we have been able to track,” said Dorinda Heiden-Guss, the President of the Economic Development Corporation of Elkhart County.

Heiden-Guss says the new rate broke Elkhart County’s previous post depression high of 13.2% back in 1979.

The November 2008 unemployment rate for Elkhart County was 12.4 %.

“It’s clearly not good news,” Heiden-Guss said, “at the same time; it’s nothing that we’re overly surprised at.”

Heiden-Guss said that December unemployment rates tend to be higher because so many plants routinely shut down over the holidays.

At Elkhart’s unemployment office, security guards now routinely direct traffic in the parking lot.

It’s now to the point where the recognition that Elkhart County has seen better days—becomes a realization that it has rarely seen worse.

“You know we're getting to levels that sound pretty disturbing for sure,” said Grant Black, an Assistant Professor of Economics at IUSB. “You know, at a national level unemployment rates in the depression peaked at around 25-percent.”

“The number is just sad, it’s really no other way to say that,” said Kyle Hannon with the Elkhart Chamber of Commerce. “It’s unfortunate people are feeling it the whole community is feeling it, because we either know somebody who has been laid off or somehow connected, went to church with them or whatever.”

The December report not only shows that Elkhart and LaGrange counties both have jobless rates topping 15%. It also shows that three additional local counties saw jobless rates jump into the double digits.

The unemployment rate for Marshall County went from 9.5 percent in November, to 12% in December. In Starke County the November rate of 9 percent climbed to 11.5%. In Kosciusko County the November rate of 8.8 percent topped out at 11 percent in December.

“I think that points to the kind of regional nature of our economy,” said Hannon, “there's a constant flow of workers into and out of Elkhart County.”

“Our economy is a regional one,” Hannon continued, “and I think everybody realizes that, and you see the numbers to justify it now.”

Some say what is most disturbing in Elkhart County is the lack of interest in laid off worker retraining programs.

The area received $13.4 million in state and federal assistance for retraining and very little of that is being used.

Some want to see the unemployed make the most of their down time and improve their skills, so the county will be better positioned to ride the next wave of economic improvement.

Elkhart County’s economic problems have come on rather quickly. Ten months ago, the unemployment rate was 5.3%, compared to 15.3% Tuesday.

The report also computes unemployment rates on a city by city basis. When the situation is confined to the city limits, the Elkhart unemployment rate hits 17 percent.

The December report shows that 15 Indiana counties now have double digit unemployment rates. The November report listed just four.