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INDIANAPOLIS, July 9 (AP) - Indiana's economy may be in the dumps, but Hoosier business boosters say our ability to compare ourselves with the rest of the nation is unparalleled. And that, they hope, will influence information-hungry employers considering setting up shop here.

New online databases announced Tuesday give economic development officials, journalists and trivia buffs a single Web site from which to gather information previously accessible only by surfing several sites.

In that respect, Indiana is a leader, said Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan, who joined officials from Indiana University's Indiana Business Research Center at a news conference. "We are unveiling something that is not available today in any other state to the degree that it is in Indiana," said the Democrat, who serves as director of the state Department of Commerce.

The site details how Indiana measures up nationally in per-capita personal income (32nd), the poverty rate (38th), and the share that manufacturing jobs represent in overall employment (1), to cite a few examples.

From the site's "Indiana IN Depth" section, comparisons can be broken down to the county and region level. Indiana's 92 counties are ranked by 16 economic and demographic benchmarks. For example, one of the state's poorest counties, southern Indiana's Orange, ranks first in unemployment (9.1 percent in 2001) and 90th in median household income ($30,971).

Other data provides indicators on Indiana's counties, regions and metropolitan areas, ranging from commuting patterns to education levels.

The Web site also contains a "USA Counties IN Profile" section that draws from federal and other databases for "peer finder" comparisons with every county nationwide. For example, a user seeking other counties with per-capital personal income similar to Orange County's $18,999 yields a list of six-dozen nationwide that fall within 1 percent of Orange County's figure.

Links lead to complete data sets for the comparison counties.

That is just the kind of information an employer might want to consider before opening up a new plant in another state. "For economic developers, this is a dream come true," said Greg Wathen, president of the Indiana Economic Development Association. "This puts the information in the hands of the folks who need it most. "This advancement will allow every community to assess itself as well as its competitors, and that should go a long way to advancing the economic development of the state."

The databases are maintained by IU's Indiana Business Research Center, with funding from the Department of Commerce. "If people in other states see that Indiana has such a system, that enhances the image of Indiana," said Morton J. Marcus, the IBRC's executive director.

The state's manfuacturing-dependent economy is overdue for an image boost.

Some recent findings by the IBRC and others include:

• Indiana has lost more jobs in the past two years than any other state. The 95,000 jobs represented about 3 percent of Indiana's work force. That is seven times worse than the national average
• Indiana has lost a greater share of retail jobs than any other state in the past two years, and ranks first in the share of non-farm jobs lost in that period.
• Personal income in Indiana has not kept pace with the nation's income growth. Indiana's share of the nation's personal income stood at 1.94 percent last year, compared with 1.97 percent in 2000.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)