Indiana’s unemployment rate improved last month for the first time in a year and a half.

The Indiana unemployment rate improved by 0.1 percentage points to 3.5 percent in June. That’s the first time it’s gone down since December 2017.

Employment levels in the state’s private sector also rebounded in June – 6,800 jobs were added, led by a surge in the private educational and health services sector.

Yet there is a troubling sign in the data. The labor force is a measure that counts both people with a job and those actively looking for one. So, growth in the labor force is viewed as a sign of optimism in the economy.

But Indiana’s labor force got worse in June, for the second straight month. It had been on 27-month streak of growth before that.