Eight of Illinois’ major metropolitan areas saw more jobs than last month while six areas saw fewer. The Illinois Department of Employment Security reports leading the gains were Carbondale-Marion, Kankakee and Peoria. Over the year decreases were lead by Bloomington, Danville and Champaign-Urbana. The highest metro unemployment rate is Rockford at 6.6 percent. The state’s unemployment rate is 4.5 percent.

Jobs growth still finds Kankakee County among the tops, but the unemployment was at 6.5% in March, second only to Rockford.

Iroquois County unemployment in March dropped a half-percent to 5.5%. Vermilion County was at 6.3%.

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