Elkhart County no longer has the highest unemployment rate in the State of Indiana. That distinction now belongs to a neighbor.

LaGrange County’s March unemployment rate was listed at 18.9 percent, up from 17.7% in February. “We don’t want to be the winner, we’d gladly give it back to Elkhart…” said Beth Sherman, the Executive Director of the LaGrange County Chamber of Commerce.

The nation’s current economic crisis has ravaged LaGrange County’s manufacturing base for months—that is nothing new.

What is new, is the attitude of the Amish toward unemployment benefits.

“The Amish community is why that number has gone up,” said Sherman. “We feel that is the reason. I have just heard this first part of this week that the bishops of the Amish community have had given their permission for the Amish to go file for unemployment.”

Laid off Amish workers don’t figure into the unemployment rate until and unless they file for unemployment benefits.

“I’m sure that is a part of it,” said Indiana State Senator Marlin Stutzman, ® Howe. “Normally they don’t collect unemployment but in the times that we’re in right now some of them are saying we have no other choice.”

The situation pants a bleak—but perhaps more accurate—picture of the LaGrange economy.

According to Beth Sherman, “Guestimates are if they’d all file, we’d be at 25-percent or higher.”

While the Amish may be the latest LaGrange County residents doing all they can to survive, they’re certainly not the only ones.

“I got people that sign their bills that I know, they pay me weekly, monthly, quarterly, you do what you have to do to make people happy,” said Angelo Tsitsos, owner of Howe Restaurant.

Factory closings have taken their toll on the lunch business at the restaurant. “They used to order every day, pickup orders, or take out orders, they haven’t ordered for months now,” said Tsitsos.

The unemployment problem is on the minds of some Indiana lawmakers as the 2009 session of the Indiana General Assembly heads into its last two weeks.

“We’re working on trying to suspend the sales tax on
R-V’s that are sold,” said Ind. Sen. Stutzman. “We have reciprocity to other states, and I’ve talked with R-V manufacturers and they say that will help a little bit, but I mean anything would help them right now.”

Both LaGrange and Elkhart Counties are heavily dependent on manufacturing jobs and the R-V industry.

While LaGrange County now has a higher unemployment rate, Elkhart County has more unemployed individuals.

The number of unemployed in LaGrange County in March is listed at 3,292. The number of unemployed in Elkhart County is 18,506.

Still, the number of unemployed residents in LaGrange County is now higher than the population of its largest city, the City of LaGrange.